tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35433552015-03-03T17:29:19.966-05:00MarkDaniels.Blogspot.comI'm a sinner, no better than any other human being. I have no personal bragging rights. My only boast is that, in spite of my many sins and my numerous faults, through God's grace, given in Jesus Christ, my sins are forgiven and I have a new life.Mark Danielshttps://plus.google.com/107102845165909742951noreply@blogger.comBlogger6408125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3543355.post-20988335292222115382015-03-03T17:29:00.000-05:002015-03-03T17:29:20.231-05:00Why Did God Order People Destroyed in Old Testament Times?Any time Christians start to delve into the Old Testament, the questions are bound to come up:<br /><br /><ul><li>Why does God call for the extermination of the disobedient of His people?</li><li>Why does God command the extermination of other peoples?</li><li>Is this the same God we meet in Jesus and the New Testament? (A corollary to which might be, "How is the God of the Old Testament different from the deity claimed by terrorists who associate themselves with Islam?")</li></ul>Good questions.<br /><br />They came up again today during the noon <i><a href="http://livingwaterlutheran.us/springboro-bible-study/">Journey Through the Bible</a> </i>discussion of Deuteronomy, chapters 1 to 21, at <a href="http://livingwaterlutheran.us/">Living Water Lutheran Church</a>.<br /><br />What I can offer is not so much answers as approximations, guesses of a believer and a student of Scripture.<br /><br /><u>The </u><span style="font-family: inherit;"><u>first thing to be said is that the God of the Old Testament is the God of the New Testament, revealed in Jesus Christ</u>. "I and the Father are one," Jesus says in John 10:30.&nbsp;</span><br /><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: inherit;">Jesus never once repudiated any action of God in the Old Testament. In fact, He upheld them and all of God's commands, even those we deem problematic.&nbsp;</span><br /><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: inherit;">"<span style="background-color: #fdfeff; color: #001320; line-height: 20px; text-align: justify;">Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets..." Jesus says in Matthew 5:17.&nbsp;</span></span><br /><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="background-color: #fdfeff; color: #001320; line-height: 20px; text-align: justify;"><br /></span></span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="background-color: #fdfeff; color: #001320; line-height: 20px; text-align: justify;">So, if there are things about God in the Old Testament that don't seem to comport with our picture of what God should be like, <i>clearly we need to be willing to have our picture amended or expanded</i>.</span></span><br /><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="background-color: #fdfeff; color: #001320; line-height: 20px; text-align: justify;"><br /></span></span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="background-color: #fdfeff; color: #001320; line-height: 20px; text-align: justify;">This wouldn't be a first, of course, for believers. In last Sunday's Gospel lesson, Mark 8:27-38, Peter confesses that Jesus is the Messiah, God's anointed redeemer king. But when Jesus explains that in His role as Messiah (or Christ), He would have to be rejected, suffer, and die, Peter flinched. He rebuked Jesus for misunderstanding what it meant to be Messiah. Jesus forcefully disabused Peter of his point of view. As Messiah and God-in-the-flesh, He told Peter that He would have to change His definition of Christ's role. <i>We must do the same when we encounter Biblical portrayals of God that jar our preconceived notions of what God should be like</i>.</span></span><br /><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="background-color: #fdfeff; color: #001320; line-height: 20px; text-align: justify;"><br /></span></span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="background-color: #fdfeff; color: #001320; line-height: 20px; text-align: justify;"><u>The second thing to be said is that God doesn't desire the destruction of any human being</u>. In Ezekiel 18:23, God says: "</span><span style="background-color: #fdfeff; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #001320;"><span style="line-height: 20px;">Do I take any pleasure in the death of the wicked? declares the Sovereign LORD. Rather, am I not pleased when they turn from their ways and live?"&nbsp;</span></span></span></span><br /><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="background-color: #fdfeff; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #001320;"><span style="line-height: 20px;"><br /></span></span></span></span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="background-color: #fdfeff; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #001320;"><span style="line-height: 20px;">And in the New Testament,&nbsp;</span></span><span style="color: #001320;"><span style="line-height: 20px;">the</span></span><span style="color: #001320;"><span style="line-height: 20px;">&nbsp;apostle Peter writes: "</span></span></span><span style="background-color: #fdfeff; color: #001320; line-height: 20px; text-align: justify;">The Lord is not slow in keeping his promise, as some understand slowness. Instead he is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance." (2 Peter 3:9).</span></span><br /><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="background-color: #fdfeff; color: #001320; line-height: 20px; text-align: justify;"><br /></span></span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="background-color: #fdfeff; color: #001320; line-height: 20px; text-align: justify;">God wants all people to turn from sin (for more on the two ways in which the Bible uses the term <i>sin</i>, see <a href="http://markdaniels.blogspot.com/2015/03/radical-makeover.html">here</a>) and trust in Him so that have life with Him. <u>But God doesn't force repentance on people</u>.&nbsp;</span></span><br /><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="background-color: #fdfeff; color: #001320; line-height: 20px; text-align: justify;"><br /></span></span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="background-color: #fdfeff; color: #001320; line-height: 20px; text-align: justify;"><u>The third thing is that the peoples outside of Israel whom God ordered destroyed had lived in open and long-term rebellion to God and utterly refused to repent</u>.&nbsp;In Old Testament times, when people refused to repent, it led to disastrous&nbsp;</span></span><span style="color: #001320;"><span style="line-height: 20px;">consequences. Sodom and Gomorrah were destroyed. Once God had called His people, Israel, the descendants of Abraham and Sarah, into being, they were often used as instruments of His justice against unrepentant peoples.</span></span><br /><span style="color: #001320;"><span style="line-height: 20px;"><br /></span></span><span style="color: #001320;"><span style="line-height: 20px;">Throughout the&nbsp;first 21&nbsp;chapters of Deuteronomy, for example, God sends His people with orders to utterly destroy nations who&nbsp;engaged in idolatry--worshiping things other than God as God--and, as a result, engaged in injustice. <i>Failure to worship God as God always results in injustices</i>. When God is supplanted as God in people's minds, they feel they have license to play god with anyone they wish.</span></span><br /><span style="color: #001320;"><span style="line-height: 20px;"><br /></span></span><span style="color: #001320;"><span style="line-height: 20px;">On the other hand, cities and kingdoms that repented in Old Testament times were spared, their cultures revived. Think of Nineveh after hearing the reluctant Jonah preach.</span></span><br /><span style="color: #001320;"><span style="line-height: 20px;"><br /></span></span><span style="color: #001320;"><span style="line-height: 20px;">The Old Testament pattern is that God allowed peoples to engage in rebellion for long stretches, often sending emissaries to them to call for repentance, desiring that they turn to Him and live. But there would come a point of no return, when the rebellion, idolatry, injustice, barbarism, and hedonism reached such a point that God&nbsp;would stand for no more. Then the orders for destruction would come. (I believe that this still happens today.)</span></span><br /><span style="color: #001320;"><span style="line-height: 20px;"><br /></span></span><span style="color: #001320;"><span style="line-height: 20px;">God would also order Israel to engage in the annihilation of others peoples lest, on conquering a land, His people adopt the idolatries of the conquered peoples.&nbsp;</span></span><br /><span style="color: #001320;"><span style="line-height: 20px;"><br /></span></span><span style="color: #001320;"><span style="line-height: 20px;"><u>The fourth thing to mention has to do with why God called for the deaths of people within Israel for their rebellion</u>. Israel was called together by God to be holy, a people set apart by Him not because of their inherent virtue or intrinsic strength. In fact, God's people are nothing without God making something of them. But God&nbsp;called Israel into existence in order to be "a light to the nations."&nbsp;</span></span><br /><span style="color: #001320;"><span style="line-height: 20px;"><br /></span></span><span style="color: #001320;"><span style="line-height: 20px;">Israel thus had an important role to play in the salvation of the world. It was to Israel that God revealed that God cares about relationships--our&nbsp;relationship with Him, our relationship with each other.&nbsp;</span></span><br /><span style="color: #001320;"><span style="line-height: 20px;"><br /></span></span><span style="color: #001320;"><span style="line-height: 20px;">To Israel, God revealed the nature of sin and that salvation comes not through works, but by faith in the God Who cares about us despite our unworthiness (check out Deuteronomy 19:1-12 and Ephesians 2:8-10, for example).&nbsp;</span></span><br /><span style="color: #001320;"><span style="line-height: 20px;"><br /></span></span><span style="color: #001320;"><span style="line-height: 20px;">And God set aside Israel to be the people that would become the nursery and the home of God in the flesh, Jesus Christ, Whose death and resurrection would make it possible for all people--Jews and Gentiles--to repent and believe in Him and live eternally with God.&nbsp;</span></span><br /><span style="color: #001320;"><span style="line-height: 20px;"><br /></span></span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="color: #001320;"><span style="line-height: 20px;">In a sense, the life of ancient Israel was like Lent on the modern Christian calendar. God formed and disciplined a people of His own making so that some--the early Christians, all of whom were from God's people Israel--would be ready to receive redemption.&nbsp;</span></span></span><br /><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="color: #001320;"><span style="line-height: 20px;"><br /></span></span></span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="color: #001320;"><span style="line-height: 20px;">In Old Testament times, God purged His people of idolatry and sin and the resultant injustice so that at least some who paid heed to Him would know the Savior when He arrived in our world.&nbsp;</span></span></span><br /><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="color: #001320;"><span style="line-height: 20px;"><br /></span></span></span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="color: #001320;"><span style="line-height: 20px;">God refused to risk having His truth utterly adulterated by countenancing false faith among His chosen people. This was the historic burden of God's people.&nbsp;</span></span></span><br /><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="color: #001320;"><span style="line-height: 20px;"><br /></span></span></span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="color: #001320;"><span style="line-height: 20px;">Tevye, the lead character of <i>Fiddler on the Roof</i>, might well have spoken for God's Old Testament people when he said to God: "I know, I know. We are Your chosen people. But, once in a while, can't You choose someone else?"</span></span></span><br /><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br />There are several things that distinguish all of this from the justifications of contemporary terrorist groups for their activities.&nbsp;</span>The most important reason though is that in Jesus Christ, God has taken all the destruction for sin, idolatry, and injustice upon Himself. He stands in our place on the cross so that, when He rises all who surrender to Him may rise with Him.<br /><br />Christ then, has ushered in a new covenant. the fulfillment of the old covenant initiated with the likes of Abraham and Moses.<br /><br />In Christ, God has destroyed the power of sin and death and their earthly manifestations (like injustice) over the lives of those who repent and believe in God revealed in Jesus. <span style="font-family: inherit;">2 Corinthians 5:21 says: "<span style="background-color: #fdfeff; color: #001320; line-height: 20px; text-align: justify;">God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God."</span></span><br /><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="background-color: #fdfeff; color: #001320; line-height: 20px; text-align: justify;"><br /></span></span><span style="background-color: #fdfeff; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #001320; font-family: inherit;"><span style="line-height: 20px;">The call of God's people today, the Church, is to proclaim and live the good news of new life through faith in Jesus Christ. This is how God conquers today. This is how God displaces evil.&nbsp;</span></span></span><br /><span style="background-color: #fdfeff; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #001320; font-family: inherit;"><span style="line-height: 20px;"><br /></span></span></span><span style="background-color: #fdfeff; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #001320; font-family: inherit;"><span style="line-height: 20px;">But all that God ordained in Old Testament times was a necessary&nbsp;</span></span><span style="color: #001320;"><span style="line-height: 20px;">prerequisite</span></span><span style="color: #001320; font-family: inherit;"><span style="line-height: 20px;">&nbsp;for the coming of Jesus and for the Church's proclamation about Him. May we be faithful in our call to proclaim Jesusl!&nbsp;</span></span></span><br /><span style="font-family: inherit;"></span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span><br /><script async="" src="//pagead2.googlesyndication.com/pagead/js/adsbygoogle.js"></script><!-- John --><br /><ins class="adsbygoogle" data-ad-client="ca-pub-5592130790838892" data-ad-slot="5335465718" style="display: inline-block; height: 280px; width: 336px;"></ins><script>(adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({}); </script>Mark Danielshttps://plus.google.com/107102845165909742951noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3543355.post-52185289562136705932015-03-02T21:54:00.001-05:002015-03-02T22:06:53.678-05:00Us Two by A.A. MilneThings are nicer with two.<br /><div id="stcpDiv" style="left: -1988px; position: absolute; top: -1999px;">Wherever I am, there's always Pooh, There's always Pooh and Me. Whatever I do, he wants to do, "Where are you going today?" says Pooh: "Well, that's very odd 'cos I was too. Let's go together," says Pooh, says he. "Let's go together," says Pooh. - See more at: http://allpoetry.com/Us-Two#sthash.mPMbx1KU.dpuf</div><blockquote class="tr_bq">Wherever I am, there's always Pooh,<br />There's always Pooh and Me.<br />Whatever I do, he wants to do,<br />"Where are you going today?" says Pooh:<br />"Well, that's very odd 'cos I was too.<br />Let's go together," says Pooh, says he.<br />"Let's go together," says Pooh.</blockquote>Read <a href="http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/us-two/">the whole thing</a>.<br /><br />C.S. Lewis once wrote in a letter, "Some day you will be old enough to start reading fairy tales again." It seems that all of us get to a point in our lives when we think that we're too old for fairy tales or other children's literature. We want hardness and cynicism. We want independence, self-sufficiency, and being "grown-up," whatever any of that really means. But the best children's literature has a way of drilling down to truth, not with innocence--because who, after all, is innocent, even at birth?--but with vulnerable honesty, showing us that life is best with others whom we love and who love us.<br /><br />Little in adult literature is so honest as Milne's poem. Simply, he articulates the desire, <i>the need</i>, we all have for people who will share, really share, in our lives, not just our houses or our beds. We need people who are rowing in the same direction, who can face their fears and relish their triumphs along with us, and with whom we can share mutual love and respect even when we may be mad at each other, even when we struggle with the dragons.<br /><br />Having been made in the image of the triune God--one God in three persons: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit--I believe that we are meant to be we's and us'es. We are made for community. We are made to be together. <br /><br />And when there is just one someone who is at least <i>willing</i> always to say, "Let's go together," we are blessed beyond measure.<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://static.comicvine.com/uploads/original/8/80778/1799333-christopherrobin.gif" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://static.comicvine.com/uploads/original/8/80778/1799333-christopherrobin.gif" /></a></div><br /><br /><div id="stcpDiv" style="left: -1988px; position: absolute; top: -1999px;">Wherever I am, there's always Pooh, There's always Pooh and Me. Whatever I do, he wants to do, "Where are you going today?" says Pooh: "Well, that's very odd 'cos I was too. Let's go together," says Pooh, says he. "Let's go together," says Pooh. - See more at: http://allpoetry.com/Us-Two#sthash.mPMbx1KU.dpuf</div><div id="stcpDiv" style="left: -1988px; position: absolute; top: -1999px;">Wherever I am, there's always Pooh, There's always Pooh and Me. Whatever I do, he wants to do, "Where are you going today?" says Pooh: "Well, that's very odd 'cos I was too. Let's go together," says Pooh, says he. "Let's go together," says Pooh. - See more at: http://allpoetry.com/Us-Two#sthash.mPMbx1KU.dpuf</div><div id="stcpDiv" style="left: -1988px; position: absolute; top: -1999px;">Wherever I am, there's always Pooh, There's always Pooh and Me. Whatever I do, he wants to do, "Where are you going today?" says Pooh: "Well, that's very odd 'cos I was too. Let's go together," says Pooh, says he. "Let's go together," says Pooh. - See more at: http://allpoetry.com/Us-Two#sthash.mPMbx1KU.dpuf</div>Mark Danielshttps://plus.google.com/107102845165909742951noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3543355.post-60913636562125080202015-03-01T14:47:00.002-05:002015-03-01T14:47:54.840-05:00Radical Makeover<span style="font-size: x-small;">[This was shared with the people and friends of <a href="http://livingwaterlutheran.us/">Living Water Lutheran Church in Springboro, Ohio</a> during both this morning's traditional and contemporary worship celebrations.]</span><br /><br /><b><a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Mark+8%3A27-38&amp;version=NIV">Mark 8:27-38</a></b><br />Imagine a scene with me. You're in your doctor's office for a consultation. You’ve had some tests and now you're back to see the doc to learn the results. She enters the office and says, "It’'s serious and the prognosis is not good." Your heart sinks.<br /><br />Then, she says, "But I have a treatment that's going to make everything OK...I'm going to give you a facelift."<br /><br />You know that can't be right: When you're up against a major illness, a superficial remedy won't do. In the face of radical maladies, only radical therapies stand a chance.<br /><br /><u>We human beings are confronted with a major malady</u>.<br /><br /><u>It's called death and it's the result of sin</u>.<br /><br />You and I were created in the image of God, the pinnacle of God's creation. But sin has distorted our natures. In fact, one Biblical word for <i>sin </i>is taken from the experience a person has looking at their reflection in a pool of water, then having that reflection distorted when a stone is thrown into the water. The image gets distorted.<br /><br /><u>Because the human race is the pinnacle of the creation, the Bible says that all creation groans under the weight of our sin, the distortion of God's image in each of us</u>.<br /><br />The Bible uses the word, <i>sin</i>, in two different ways.<br /><br /><u>One way the Bible talks about sin is as a condition of our birth, original sin</u>. This is what David is talking about in Psalm 51:5: "Surely I was sinful at birth, sinful from the time my mother conceived me."<u> If you had human parents, you were born sinful, too</u>. Sin is a debt we owe to God. You and I are born with a debt so crippling we could never possibly pay it off.<br /><br /><u>But if that sounds bad, it gets worse</u>. Being born in sin means that we have an inborn inclination to add to our debts by committing sins. This is what the Lutheran confessions call <i>concupiscence</i>.&nbsp;<u>This is the other way the Bible speaks of sin: a particular violation of the will of God as expressed in the Ten Commandments</u>: murder, taking God's Name in vain, failing to help our neighbor in need.<br /><br /><u>Because of the condition of original sin, our sinfulness is stubbornly evidenced in all our thinking, speaking, and living</u>. Because we are born sinners, we sin naturally.<br /><br />In Romans 7:15, the apostle Paul writes: "I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do [<i>obey God’s commands</i>] I do not do, but what I hate I do."<br /><br />We are born in sin and we find ourselves incapable of refraining from sin.<br /><br />And the Bible doesn’t soft pedal what that means: "The wages of sin is death" (Romans 6:23).<br /><br />"Wait," we might say. "I'm not perfect. But I've never committed any of the really big sins. I've never murdered. I've never committed adultery. I've never stolen."<br /><br />James 2:10 says: "For whoever keeps the whole law and yet stumbles at just one point is guilty of breaking all of it."<br /><br />So, in sin, we have a major illness and the prognosis is death. Superficial therapies won’t do. That's what Jesus is talking about in today's Gospel lesson.<br /><br />Turn to Mark 8:27-38 (page 705), please. Near the beginning of a conversation with the disciples, Jesus asks them, "Who do you say I am?” In Mark 8:29, Peter says, "You are <i>the Messiah</i> [or, <i>the Christ</i>]."<br /><br />The title, <i>Christ</i>&nbsp;(from <i>Christos</i> as it appears in the New Testament, which was written in Greek) or Messiah (from the Hebrew in which the Old Testament was written), means <i>Anointed One</i>. The kings of God's people were always anointed with oil on being enthroned. The Old Testament had repeatedly foretold of an ultimate Messiah who would bring God’s rule to earth.<br /><br />Through the centuries, certain popular expectations developed about the coming Christ or Messiah. The people of first-century Judea, the place to which Jesus, God-in-the-flesh, came to live, die, and rise, thought that the Messiah would make what would amount to cosmetic changes, the moral equivalent of a facelift as a cure for cancer.<br /><br />To them, the problems they faced had nothing to do with themselves or their own deficiencies. (This is a common theme in human history. The late Karl Menninger once quoted a folk song that said, "Everything I do that's wrong is someone else's fault.")<br /><br />Jesus' fellow Judeans wanted a king who would toss the Romans out of their land. They wanted an end to oppressive government regulations. They wanted the rich to pay their fair share in taxes and they wanted to the Romans to ease up on the poor. They wanted a king who would do their bidding. Their idea of what God should do in their lives was very different from what God had in mind.<br /><br />That's why Peter's declaration of faith in Jesus as the Messiah was dangerous. Jesus had to instruct the disciples on what it means to confess Jesus as the Christ. He didn't want to feed their false expectations. Jesus had come to do more than offer facelifts on dying people!<br /><br />Look at Mark 8:31: "He then began to teach them that the Son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders, the chief priests and the teachers of the law, and that he must be killed and after three days rise again."<br /><br /><u>The therapy for our sin, Jesus is saying, begins with Him</u>.<br /><br />He, Who never once sinned, would undergo the death we deserve for our sin so that the debt can be paid for all who repent and believe in Jesus.<br /><br />But when Peter heard Jesus predict that He would suffer, be rejected, and be killed, he couldn’t take it. It certainly did sound like a very compelling campaign platform!<br /><br />Look at Mark 8:32: "Peter took him [Jesus] aside and began to rebuke him." The word <i>rebuke</i>, <i>epitimao</i> in the Greek in which Mark originally wrote, means to <i>warn, upbraid, condemn, set straight</i>.<br /><br />Imagine this: Peter has just declared Jesus to be God's Anointed King and now he has the audacity to tell Jesus how to do His job!<br /><br />Verse 33: "But when Jesus turned and looked at his disciples, he rebuked Peter. ‘Get behind me, Satan!’ he said. ‘You do not have in mind the concerns of God, but merely human concerns.’"<br /><br />When Satan tempted Jesus in the wilderness, you'll remember, he tried to lure Jesus away from suffering, rejection, and the cross. He did so because if Jesus was faithful in taking these agonies onto Himself, He would pay our debt in full and thereby empower all who turn from sin and trust in Him as their God to be raised just as God the Father raised Jesus on the first Easter.<br /><br /><u>Jesus knew that He needed to fulfill His purpose for coming to earth, whatever pain He caused Himself</u>. He couldn't let Satan stand in His way.<br /><br />Now Jesus applies the name of Satan to Peter!<br /><br />Peter may have thought that He was doing a nice thing, like the church member who says, "Pastor, I know that the Bible says that Jesus is the only way to eternity with God, but you make people feel uncomfortable when you tell the truth like that."<br /><br />"Niceness" of the kind Peter exhibits here leads people away from God.<br /><br />"Niceness" like this suits Satan's purposes just fine. Jesus, in essence, is telling Peter,<br /><br />In fact one of the great afflictions of the Christian churches in North America and Europe today is that too often, we've become the <i>Church of Nice</i>&nbsp;rather than the <i>Church of Christ</i>.<br /><br />Jesus was telling Peter, in essence: "I am the great Physician and My suffering, rejection by others, and death on a cross are the first part of the cure. So, Peter, get out of My way!"<br /><br /><u>Then, Jesus gives the second part of His radical therapy for our sin and death</u>.<br /><br />Look at verses 34 and 35: "...he called the crowd to him along with his disciples and said: “Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me. For whoever wants to save their life will lose it, but whoever loses their life for me and for the gospel will save it."<br /><br />Here we see that <u>to believe that Jesus is the Christ--the King, the Lord of all--is more than just saying the right words on Sunday mornings</u>.<br /><br />To believe that Jesus is the Messiah is, first of all, to surrender ourselves, even to the point of discomfort and death, to God's only aim for our lives, our sole aim in life.<br /><br />God's sole aim for our lives is articulated in 2 Corinthians 3:18, which says: "But we all [<i>all of us who trust in Christ as God and Savior</i>], with uncovered face beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, <b>are changed into the same image</b>, from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord."<br /><br /><u>If sin has distorted the image of God within us, it's God's aim to infuse us with the image of God the Son so that we can begin to experience human life as God intended for it to be lived</u>.<br /><br />God aims to make us over into the very image of Jesus!<br /><br />As we trust in Jesus each day, the Holy Spirit works a miracle: <u>We who have been distorted by sin are made over in the image of Christ!</u><br /><br />It doesn't happen fully within our time on this earth.<br /><br />And on the way to our resurrection from the dead, we won't avoid suffering, rejection, or death any more than Jesus did.<br /><br />But we will become more and more like Jesus.<br /><br />1 John 3:2 says, "Dear friends, now we are children of God, and what we will be has not yet been made known. But we know that when Christ appears, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is."<br /><br />So, to believe in Jesus means, first of all, to surrender to Him even to the point of discomfort and death.<br /><br />To believe that Jesus is the Messiah is, secondly, to embrace the life style of Jesus.<br /><br />When, through Jesus' death and resurrection, you understand that you are number one in God's eyes, you’re freed from “looking out for number one."<br /><br />Philippians 2:3-4 says: "Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit. Rather, in humility value others above yourselves, not looking to your own interests but each of you to the interests of the others."<br /><br />John Stott tells the story of a college classroom in India. The professor, a Hindu, realized that one of his students was a Christian. "If you Christians lived like Jesus Christ," the professor told the student, "India would be at your feet tomorrow." That professor could as easily say that to any Christian in this country: "If you Christians lived like Jesus Christ, America would be at your feet."<br /><br />No Christian wants to have others at their feet, of course. Like our Lord, we come to serve, not to be served.<br /><br /><u>But our joy as Christians is only made complete when we share Christ with others and they too, come to believe in Jesus as the Christ</u>.<br /><br />Sin and death threaten to separate us from God for eternity. God's cure is radical, but sure. It begins with the Christ, God the Son, suffering, dying, and rising for us. And it's fulfilled when, after confessing Jesus with our lips, we confess Him with our lives, taking up our crosses and following Him: submitting ourselves to the death of our old sinful selves, committing ourselves to letting God make us over in the image of Jesus Himself, and embracing the very life of self-sacrifice and unstinting love that Jesus lived.<br /><br />May God give us the power to have a faith that's more than words, a faith that shows in our whole lives.<br /><br />May we submit to the radical cure that gives us life with God forever!<br /><br />Amen <br /><br /><script async src="//pagead2.googlesyndication.com/pagead/js/adsbygoogle.js"></script><!-- John --><ins class="adsbygoogle" style="display:inline-block;width:336px;height:280px" data-ad-client="ca-pub-5592130790838892" data-ad-slot="5335465718"></ins><script>(adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({}); </script>Mark Danielshttps://plus.google.com/107102845165909742951noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3543355.post-33850173990328010842015-02-27T00:39:00.005-05:002015-02-27T00:41:15.174-05:00Heaven on a Sunday by Paul McCartney<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/Evg8C2864mY" width="560"></iframe><br /><br /><blockquote class="tr_bq">"Restful, like Devon on a Monday<br />"Cooling my fingers in the bay<br />"We've been learning a song<br />"But it's a long and lonely blues<br /><br />"If I only had one love<br />"Yours would be the one I'd choose.."</blockquote>Love the image of sitting dreamily on a boat, reclining, and dipping fingers into the bay to feel the cool water. <br /><br />The song seems to be the wistful wishing of a couple whose love, for whatever reason, can't be. So, they've been learning a song, but they can't sing celebrations together, just "a long and lonely blues."<br /><br />This ballad is among the last tunes on which Paul McCartney's late wife Linda sang background vocals. Their son, James, also provides the guitar solo.<br /><br />Devon, mentioned in the second verse, is a county in the southwest of England. Its south edge sets on the English Channel. On its north is Bristol Channel, which seems likely "the bay" in the song. <br /><br />The video is part of an autoplay of Macca material. I don't usually link to stuff on Youtube that automatically takes you to other songs. But I had no other option for linking to <i>Heaven on a Sunday</i>. It's a pretty little thing. Just thought of it as I was heading for bed.<br /><blockquote class="tr_bq">"Peaceful, like heaven on a Sunday<br />"Wishful, not thinking what to do<br />"We've been calling it love<br />"But it's a dream we're going through<br /><br />"And if I only had one love<br />Yours would be the one I'd choose"</blockquote>That, I think, is sigh-inducing.Mark Danielshttps://plus.google.com/107102845165909742951noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3543355.post-22351707313985084462015-02-26T17:46:00.000-05:002015-02-26T17:46:32.876-05:00How Long Will You Live? SRT May Give an IndicationSee <a href="http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/2015/02/26/sitting-rising-test-life-expectancy-fitness/24076407/">here</a>.<br /><br /><br />Mark Danielshttps://plus.google.com/107102845165909742951noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3543355.post-91422645226952655202015-02-26T01:09:00.005-05:002015-02-26T01:09:42.285-05:00Texas Sportscaster Dishes Honestly on Racism<iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/Fum9jeApDzk?list=PLUgRTD1mpwSVBbjrMC4rZoEzkyvLQPeAg" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>Mark Danielshttps://plus.google.com/107102845165909742951noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3543355.post-10687180192107515782015-02-25T21:15:00.000-05:002015-02-25T21:15:35.898-05:00Teach Us to Pray, Part 1<span style="font-size: x-small;">[This was shared with the people and friends of <a href="http://livingwaterlutheran.us/">Living Water Lutheran Church in Springboro, Ohio </a>during this evening's midweek Lenten service.]</span><br /><a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Psalm+98&amp;version=NIV"><br /></a><a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Psalm+98&amp;version=NIV"><b>Psalm 98</b></a><br /><a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Luke+11%3A1-2&amp;version=NIV"><b>Luke 11:1-2</b></a><br /><div dir="ltr" id="docs-internal-guid-49d76292-c384-a995-c919-f5a358aa6b61" style="line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">From Luke, chapter 11, verse 1: “One day Jesus was praying in a certain place. When he finished, one of his disciples said to him, ‘Lord, teach us to pray, just as John taught his disciples.’”</span></span></span></div><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></span><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">This passage comes less than halfway through Luke’s account of the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus. That means it appears well before Jesus’ disciples knew that Jesus was God as well as a good man. <br /><br />But at this point, it’s probably fair to say that they </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #333333; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">did</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> understand two things about Jesus. <br /><br />First, they understood that </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #333333; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">He was magnetic. The disciples felt pulled into Jesus' orbit. <br /><br />And second, they knew that Jesus prayed.</span></span></span></div><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></span><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">And because learning to pray--something we can always afford to learn more about--is the focus of these midweek Lenten services, it’s on this second thing that the disciples understood about Jesus that we’ll be focusing in the next few weeks of Lent.</span></span></span></div><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></span><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">In the Gospel of Luke, the words <i>pray</i>, <i>prayed</i>, and <i>prayer</i> are used many times of Jesus. (Try going through the Gospel of Luke sometime and underlining every time those words appear.) <br /><br />A few examples: <br /><br />Luke 5:16 says that Jesus was in the habit of withdrawing to quiet places to pray. </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #333333; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><br /><br />Luke 6:12 says that Jesus went to a mountain to pray and did so all night long. <br /><br />Luke 22:41 says that in the Garden of Gethsemane before His betrayal and arrest, Jesus withdrew a stone’s throw from the disciples and prayed. <br /><br />At the beginning of Jesus’ ministry, Luke 3:21 says that as Jesus was baptized and was praying, the heavens opened up and a voice from heaven said that Jesus was God’s beloved Son. <br /><br />Luke 9:28:35 says that the Transfiguration, which we talke about on a recent Sunday morning, happened as Jesus was praying. <br /><br /><b>The point is that </b></span><b><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Jesus prayed a lot!</span></b></span></span></div><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></span><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">So, it may seem the most natural thing in the world that one of the disciples--interestingly, never named, meaning it could have been any one of them--would ask Jesus, “Lord, teach us to pray.”</span></span></span></div><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></span><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">This probably wasn’t as pious a request as it seems, though. By this point in Jesus' ministry, Peter </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #333333; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">had</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> made his confession of Jesus as the Messiah and he, James, and John </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #333333; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">had</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> seen Jesus transfigured on the mountain. </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline;">But all of the disciples were a long way from understanding Who Jesus was, what it meant to confess Him as Messiah or Lord, or what it meant to pray</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">.</span></span></span></div><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></span><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">One clue to the ignorance with which the disciple asked to be taught to pray is that after he says, “Lord, teach us to pray,” he adds, “</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #333333; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">as John taught his disciples</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">.” <br /><br />This is club-thinking, like someone at Kiwanis saying, “Hey, the Rotarians have dinners, shouldn’t we have dinners, too?” <br /><br />It’s keeping-up-with-the-Joneses thinking, like ancient Israel saying, "All the other countries around us have kings. </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #333333; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">We</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> need a king too." <br /><br />So, the disciples' request for instruction on how to pray is a bit suspect.</span></span></span></div><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></span><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">But, among the many wonderful things about Jesus is that </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #333333; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">even when the requests we bring to Him are ill-formed, misinformed, or silly, He </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #333333; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">still </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #333333; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">listens to us</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">. <br /><br />Jesus heard the disciple’s request to teach him and the others how to pray, overlooked the ignorance and misinformation behind the request, and gave him—gave </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #333333; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">us</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">—</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline;">a model for prayer that can accommodate everyone from the youngest believer to the most seasoned saint</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">.</span></span></span></div><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></span><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Jesus begins: “When you pray, say, ‘Father, hallowed be Your Name.” <br /><br />Matthew’s Gospel remembers the beginning of Jesus’ instructions a bit differently. Matthew renders Jesus’ words as: “Pray then in this way: Our Father in heaven, hallowed be Your Name…” <br /><br />In </span><a href="http://www.augsburgfortress.org/store/item.jsp?clsid=194438&amp;productgroupid=0&amp;isbn=0806656042" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #6699cc; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">The Small Catechism</span></a><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">, Martin Luther refers to, “Our Father, Who art in heaven,” as </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #333333; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">the introduction to the Lord’s Prayer</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">. Here, we’re encouraged to see God not as some distant deity, but as our loving parent who wants to hear from us.</span></span></span></div><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></span><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">When our son first went away to college and our daughter went to Florida to work at Walt Disney World in their college program, every telephone call and every email we got from them were important to us. <br /><br />Our prayers can become the telephone calls or conversations with the Parent Who always has our backs, One with Whom we can share our most intimate thoughts, our deepest desires, our greatest fears, worst sins, most noble hopes, and most urgent requests. Our Father wants to hear from us.</span></span></span></div><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></span><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">But after this note of intimacy, the prayer Jesus teaches us introduces another element that should be part of our praying as well. He does it in the words, “Hallowed by Your Name (or Thy Name).” The word “hallowed” means revered, sacred, inviolable, respected, glorified.</span></span></span></div><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></span><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">New Testament scholar N.T. Wright says: “This prayer starts by addressing God intimately and lovingly, as ‘Father’—and by bowing before his greatness and majesty. </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #333333; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">If you can hold those two together, you’re already on the way to understanding what Christianity is about</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">.” [<i>Italics </i>added.]</span></span></span></div><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></span><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Pulling those two things together—the loving intimacy of God and the overpowering, perfect, majestic holiness of God—will also, I think, help us learn to truly pray. <br /><br />In Jesus Christ, we know that God is willing to go with us into our deepest valleys and can, if we will let Him, move our biggest mountains. <br /><br />“God is great, God is good,” a prayer many learned as children says. The Lord’s Prayer, in effect, begins, “God is good, God is great.” <br /><br />Either way you put it, it’s wonderful to know that the perfect, powerful God Who is in charge of the universe also is ready to hear from us anytime.</span></span></span></div><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">It seems to me that knowing these two things--that God is infinitely great and holy AND that in Jesus Christ, He makes it possible for us to speak to Him intimately and personally--is the first step in truly learning how to pray. <br /><br />More next Wednesday.</span></span></span><br /><br /><script async src="//pagead2.googlesyndication.com/pagead/js/adsbygoogle.js"></script><!-- John --><ins class="adsbygoogle" style="display:inline-block;width:336px;height:280px" data-ad-client="ca-pub-5592130790838892" data-ad-slot="5335465718"></ins><script>(adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({}); </script>Mark Danielshttps://plus.google.com/107102845165909742951noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3543355.post-87082102440670867982015-02-25T12:07:00.000-05:002015-02-25T12:07:19.710-05:00In the Face of Barbarities, PrayingPraying today for the 150 people--Christian men, women, and children abducted by Isis yesterday--that God will sustain, encourage, and provide for them and bring them to safety.<br /><br />Praying also that the Holy Spirit will empower them, like the 21 martyred by Isis in Egypt last week, to endure in making the good confession for the God Who can save from sin, death, and themselves, any sinner who repents and believes in the crucified and risen Jesus, God in human flesh.<br /><br />Through faithful, steadfast Christian witness, God can save and transform even the most murderous enemies of Christ and His Church. (Those conversant with the Bible will think of Saint Paul, who murderously terrorized Christians only to be changed for eternity by the grace of God in Christ!)<br /><br />Praying also that the Church everywhere will be emboldened to spread the good news about Jesus so that, reconciled with God through Jesus, they will seek to understand and work with their neighbors, not hate or kill them. This is needed in every nation of the world, the United States as well as Syria, France as well as Iraq!<br /><br />Praying also that God will guide the leaders of the world in punishing and bringing to justice those perpetrating these barbarities. The Bible is clear that God has instituted governments to hold in check those unwilling to voluntarily yield to the rule of God--and His call to love God and to love others--in this imperfect world. May God empower all governments to do their duty in destroying the forces of chaos, violence, and nihilism in our world.<br /><br />And praying that God will undertake to do whatever He deems needed, knowing that my wisdom about all that needs to happen is minuscule, in these circumstances. Paul says in Romans 8:26-27 that God's "Spirit helps us in our weakness. We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us through wordless groans. And he who searches our hearts knows the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for God’s people in accordance with the will of God."<br /><br />I don't know exactly what to pray for; but I know Who to pray to.<br /><br />So, in my ignorance and faulty wisdom, I ask that God's kingdom come and that God's will be done on earth just as it is in heaven.Mark Danielshttps://plus.google.com/107102845165909742951noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3543355.post-64959008400497624712015-02-23T21:42:00.000-05:002015-02-23T21:42:20.096-05:00'House of Bricks'<i>Sesame Street</i>'s take on <i>House of Cards</i>, the Netflix reboot of the 1990s British series about cynical political intrigue and manipulation, is funny.<br /><br /><iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/92NXMtVtv8o" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>Mark Danielshttps://plus.google.com/107102845165909742951noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3543355.post-65795497499532603512015-02-23T06:26:00.000-05:002015-02-23T06:26:00.751-05:00Taking the TimeThe passage of Scripture appointed from today's <i><a href="http://storage.cloversites.com/calvarychapelskyline1/documents/NT%201%20year.pdf">5x5x5 Bible Reading Plan</a> </i>is Acts 24.<br /><br />The New Testament book of Acts is like an old friend to me, maybe sometimes a bit too familiar.<br /><br />Acts, a history of the early Church from the moment of the risen Jesus' ascension through about three decades later, is the first book of the Bible I read after I became a follower of Christ. (I had been an atheist for the preceding ten years or so.)<br /><br />In chapter 24, the apostle Paul is being held in Roman custody. The charge on which he's being held, false, is that he has profaned the Jewish temple in Jerusalem, specifically by allowing Gentiles into portions of the temple open to Jews alone.<br /><br />For the Romans, conquerors and governors of Judea, the defiling of the Jewish holy place would have been a matter of indifference, except if it caused disruptions of the public order. The accusations lodged by the powerful among Paul's fellow Jews was that Paul <i>was</i> being disruptive, though Paul claims that he's in hot water with some--one thinks of the Sadducees, highly important among the Jewish leadership who didn't believe in life after death--because he has spoken of the resurrection of the dead.<br /><br />Paul is kept a prisoner for two years in Jerusalem, albeit with some liberties. This delay occurred because Felix, the Roman governor of Judea from 52 to 58 AD, "<a href="http://bible.oremus.org/?ql=291687628">well informed about the Way</a>"--"the Way" being the Christian movement--thought he could pry a bribe from Paul's fellow believers to achieve his release.<br /><br />Once, Felix sent for Paul and, with his wife, Druscilla, listened to the apostle teach. But Felix was a man who had always acted to get what he wanted, irrespective of how it hurt others.<br /><br />This is where the verse that I considered for today comes in:<br /><blockquote class="tr_bq">And as he [Paul] discussed justice, self-control, and the coming judgment, Felix became frightened and said, “Go away for the present; when I have an opportunity, I will send for you.” (Acts 24:25)</blockquote>The grace of God, which includes forgiveness of sins and the promise of new life through faith in Jesus Christ and the promise of Jesus' help and presence for me everyday I live on earth, is something I cherish. I know that these blessings of God are free gifts I can't earn, but only receive by faith in Christ.<br /><br />But I also know that I cannot receive these gifts if I insist on sinning like the rest of the world.<br /><br />I am human. I sin everyday, however unintentionally. And I must ask God to show me my sins--unintentional and otherwise--everyday, in case I come to presume on God's grace, secured for me and all people by the suffering and death of Jesus on the cross.<br /><br />In gratitude for what Jesus has done for me, I want to live a life pleasing to Him. Despite my imperfections, I want to be an instrument that He can use for His purposes each day. Un-repented sin can stand in the way of that.<br /><br />Conversely, when we have faith in Jesus--meaning when we trust Him with our sins and deficiencies <i>and </i>to save us from the death our sins deserve--He helps us, by His Holy Spirit, to live more justly toward others, with more self-control.<br /><br /><a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Mark+1%3A15&amp;version=NIV">Jesus, according to Mark's gospel, called people to repent, that is, turn away from sin (something I have to do multiple times every day) and believe in the good news that God so loves us He sent God the Son Jesus to die for our sin and to rise from the dead, so that all who believe in Him won't perish--won't be separated from God--but live with God for eternity</a>.<br /><br />Paul was sharing this message with Felix and Druscilla. But when Paul began to talk about justice, self-control, and judgment, Felix became frightened and sent Paul away.<br /><br />Paul hit too close to home. We can't be just or self-controlled when we're guided by the things of this world--whether they're our stomachs, our traditions, our desire for security, our countries, our love of money and power, our families, or something else.<br /><br />To claim that we are just or that we do exercise self-control in our lives apart from the gifts of grace operating within us through faith in Christ is a delusion. I know that.<br /><br />Without Jesus, we all stand naked in sin, deserving of death, and susceptible to judgment by God.<br /><br />This is what disturbs Felix and so, he sends Paul away.<br /><br />But as I contemplate this passage, I realize that I often send the message of God away. I send God away.<br /><br />I hurry through my Bible readings.<br /><br />I avoid making a personal application of what I read in God's Word and think, instead, of how it applies to other people. Or how I might use it as an illustration in a sermon or a lesson.<br /><br />I hurriedly skip meditating on God's Word in order to offer pious prayers for justice and protection and healing for <i>other</i> people. There's nothing wrong with praying for other people, of course, unless I use such prayers to deflect God's attention from my deficiencies and God's desire to alter my character. In other words, to elude the judgment and recognition of sin that must happen before the grace of God can flood into that place in my life too.<br /><br />I avoid the pain of <a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Psalm+139%3A23-24&amp;version=NIV">letting God search me and know my heart, to detect the evil in me, to rip it out of my soul to die, to be replaced by a humble, childlike dependence on Him in another facet of my life</a>.<br /><br />I can be like Felix: well-informed about the Way of salvation, Jesus, but sending Him away when He gets too close.<br /><br />I've preached it to many, but I don't always practice it myself: I must let God tear down these walls, to stop me from hurrying, to give me the guts to listen and to apply what His Word tells me when I would rather move on with my day and my agenda. I need to do this so that I can live for Him alone. (It's the only reasonable thing to do in response to the fact that He has lived and died and risen for me.)<br /><br /><i>God, give me the guts to take the time often each day to stop and listen to Your Word. Forgive me for so often, like Felix, turning You away when, for my soul's sake, I need to let Your Spirit do His work. I need to let Your Spirit convict me of sin and, as I repent&nbsp;and trust in Christ, to set me free to be trusting and faithful in yet another aspect of my life. Help me to take my cues for living from You alone. Help me to live the reality that I confess (and preach) that Jesus alone is the way, the truth, and the life, and that there's no way to You or the life You want to give me except through daily surrender to Jesus Christ alone. In His Name. Amen</i>Mark Danielshttps://plus.google.com/107102845165909742951noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3543355.post-10668673416824611252015-02-22T12:01:00.000-05:002015-02-22T12:14:44.092-05:00Why is That in There?<span style="font-size: x-small;">[This was prepared to be shared with the people and friends of <a href="http://livingwaterlutheran.us/">Living Water Lutheran Church in Springboro, Ohio</a>, this morning.]</span><br /><br /><b><a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Genesis+22%3A1-18&amp;version=NIV">Genesis 22:1-18</a></b><br /><div class="c6" style="background-color: white; direction: ltr; line-height: 1; orphans: 2; widows: 2;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span class="c4">Few Bible passages will ever be more difficult to understand than today’s first lesson, Genesis 22:1-18.&nbsp;</span></span></span></div><div class="c6" style="background-color: white; direction: ltr; line-height: 1; orphans: 2; widows: 2;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span class="c4"><br /></span></span></span></div><div class="c6" style="background-color: white; direction: ltr; line-height: 1; orphans: 2; widows: 2;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span class="c4">Twenty-five years after promising a son to Abraham and Sarah, Isaac is born, the apple of their eyes. Isaac is to be the first in a long line of descendants to the couple. God has promised Abraham that he will be the father of many nations and that Israel would be a light to the nations. Today, we know that Israel was the means by which God would take on human flesh in the person of Jesus of Nazareth, dying to pay for our sins, rising from the dead, and giving forgiveness of sin and everlasting life with God to all who repent and believe in Him.&nbsp;</span></span></span></div><div class="c6" style="background-color: white; direction: ltr; line-height: 1; orphans: 2; widows: 2;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span class="c3" style="text-decoration: underline;"><br /></span></span></span></div><div class="c6" style="background-color: white; direction: ltr; line-height: 1; orphans: 2; widows: 2;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span class="c3"><u>So, what on earth is God doing, in </u></span><span class="c3" style="text-decoration: underline;">today’s first lesson, telling Abraham to take his one and only son, the son that he loves, and offer him as a sacrifice</span><span class="c4">?</span></span></span></div><div class="c6" style="background-color: white; direction: ltr; line-height: 1; orphans: 2; widows: 2;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span class="c4"><br /></span></span></span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span class="c4">Some atheists look at this passage and claim it shows that the God of the Bible is a barbaric fiction, the product of a vicious imagined God. But God isn’t barbarous. We know that God had told His people&nbsp;</span><span class="c1" style="font-style: italic;">never&nbsp;</span><span class="c4">to engage in the child sacrifice prevalent in surrounding the cultures surrounding His chosen ones, the Israelites. In Leviticus 18:21, for example, God tells His people: “</span><span class="c7 c4" style="background-color: #fdfeff; color: #001320;">Do not give any of your children to be sacrificed…” <u>God regarded child sacrifice as an abomination</u>.&nbsp;</span></span></span></div><div class="c6" style="background-color: white; direction: ltr; line-height: 1; orphans: 2; widows: 2;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span class="c4"><br /></span></span></span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span class="c4">Some&nbsp;</span><span class="c1" style="font-style: italic;">Christians</span><span class="c4">&nbsp;look at this incident and, embarrassed and confused, say it’s not important. That would be an easy way out. <u>But just because we don’t fully understand something in the Bible is no reason to try to erase it from its pages</u>.&nbsp;</span></span></span></div><div class="c6" style="background-color: white; direction: ltr; line-height: 1; orphans: 2; widows: 2;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span class="c4"><br /></span></span></span></div><div class="c6" style="background-color: white; direction: ltr; line-height: 1; orphans: 2; widows: 2;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span class="c4">One of my professors at seminary told us about doing devotions with his wife. They were reading a lengthy and boring passage from Leviticus. “Ron,” she asked, “is this really that important?” “It must be,” he said. “It’s in there.”&nbsp;</span></span></span></div><div class="c6" style="background-color: white; direction: ltr; line-height: 1; orphans: 2; widows: 2;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span class="c4"><br /></span></span></span></div><div class="c6" style="background-color: white; direction: ltr; line-height: 1; orphans: 2; widows: 2;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span class="c4">Genesis 22:1-18 is “in there.” <u>So, let’s consider this incident, knowing that we will never understand God completely&nbsp;</u></span><span class="c1" style="font-style: italic;"><u>and&nbsp;</u></span><span class="c4"><u>certain through Jesus Christ that God is no monster</u>.&nbsp;</span></span></span></div><div class="c6" style="background-color: white; direction: ltr; line-height: 1; orphans: 2; widows: 2;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span class="c4"><br /></span></span></span></div><div class="c6" style="background-color: white; direction: ltr; line-height: 1; orphans: 2; widows: 2;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span class="c4"><u>And let’s ask why is this passage “in there.”</u></span></span></span></div><div class="c0" style="background-color: white; direction: ltr; line-height: 1; orphans: 2; padding-bottom: 8pt; widows: 2;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span class="c4"><br /></span></span></span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span class="c4">Verse 1: “</span><span class="c4">Some time later God tested Abraham. He said to him, ‘Abraham!’ ‘Here I am,’ he replied. Then God said, ‘Take your son, your only son, whom you love—Isaac—and go to the region of Moriah. Sacrifice him there as a burnt offering on a mountain I will show you.’”&nbsp;</span></span></span></div><div class="c0" style="background-color: white; direction: ltr; line-height: 1; orphans: 2; padding-bottom: 8pt; widows: 2;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span class="c4"><u><br /></u></span></span></span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span class="c4"><u>Up to this point in Genesis, we know that Abraham has been less than reliable, less than faithful, to God</u>.&nbsp;</span></span></span></div><div class="c0" style="background-color: white; direction: ltr; line-height: 1; orphans: 2; padding-bottom: 8pt; widows: 2;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span class="c4" style="line-height: 1;"><br /></span></span></span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span class="c4" style="line-height: 1;">To save his own skin, he lied to two different kings about Sarah, saying she was his sister and not his wife.&nbsp;</span></span></span></div><div class="c0" style="background-color: white; direction: ltr; line-height: 1; orphans: 2; padding-bottom: 8pt; widows: 2;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span class="c4" style="line-height: 1;"><br /></span></span></span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span class="c4" style="line-height: 1;">When God didn’t seem to be working quickly enough to deliver on His promise of a son, he quickly accepted his wife Sarah’s plan of taking her servant to give them a son.&nbsp;</span></span></span></div><div class="c0" style="background-color: white; direction: ltr; line-height: 1; orphans: 2; padding-bottom: 8pt; widows: 2;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span class="c4" style="line-height: 1;"><br /></span></span></span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span class="c4" style="line-height: 1;">Abraham’s faith in God was a bit deficient. Imperfect. (A bit like yours and mine.)&nbsp;</span></span></span></div><div class="c0" style="background-color: white; direction: ltr; line-height: 1; orphans: 2; padding-bottom: 8pt; widows: 2;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span class="c4" style="line-height: 1;"><br /></span></span></span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span class="c4" style="line-height: 1;">Yet God had a mission for Abraham. But Abraham had many temptations ahead of him, including the temptation of turning his son into an idol to take the place of God as the most important consideration in his life.&nbsp;</span></span></span></div><div class="c0" style="background-color: white; direction: ltr; line-height: 1; orphans: 2; padding-bottom: 8pt; widows: 2;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span class="c3" style="line-height: 1; text-decoration: underline;"><br /></span></span></span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span class="c3" style="line-height: 1; text-decoration: underline;">God needed to test Abraham, to forge his faith</span><span class="c4" style="line-height: 1;">. So, he devised a plan to do so.&nbsp;</span></span></span></div><div class="c0" style="background-color: white; direction: ltr; line-height: 1; orphans: 2; padding-bottom: 8pt; widows: 2;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span class="c3" style="line-height: 1; text-decoration: underline;"><br /></span></span></span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span class="c3" style="line-height: 1; text-decoration: underline;">God often forges the&nbsp;</span><span class="c3" style="line-height: 1; text-decoration: underline;">faith and characters of those who believe in Him through testing and discipline</span><span class="c4" style="line-height: 1;">. It’s how we grow. It’s how we learn to depend on Him as our only God, our only source of meaningful help, our only source of hope.&nbsp;</span></span></span></div><div class="c0" style="background-color: white; direction: ltr; line-height: 1; orphans: 2; padding-bottom: 8pt; widows: 2;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span class="c4" style="line-height: 1;"><br /></span></span></span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span class="c4" style="line-height: 1;">Hebrews 12:6 tells us that, “...the Lord disciplines the one he loves, and he chastens everyone he accepts as his son.”&nbsp;</span><span class="c3" style="line-height: 1; text-decoration: underline;"><b>So, maybe the first reason this account of Abraham and Isaac is in the Bible is to warn all of us who follow the God of Israel ultimately revealed in Christ that there will be times when God will test our faith, when we will be called out of our comfort zones, when we will have to grow up in our faith</b></span><span class="c4" style="line-height: 1;">.</span></span></span></div><div class="c0" style="background-color: white; direction: ltr; line-height: 1; orphans: 2; padding-bottom: 8pt; widows: 2;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span class="c4"><br /></span></span></span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span class="c4">You know what happens next. Abraham takes Isaac to the region called Moriah, to a place that God was going to show him, carrying all that he would need to sacrifice his son.&nbsp;</span></span></span></div><div class="c0" style="background-color: white; direction: ltr; line-height: 1; orphans: 2; padding-bottom: 8pt; widows: 2;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span class="c4" style="line-height: 1;"><br /></span></span></span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span class="c4" style="line-height: 1;">Moriah is mentioned only twice in the Bible, here and in 2 Chronicles 3:1, which recounts something that happened centuries after the events of today’s lesson. Take a look at that passage now, if you would (page 300 in the sanctuary Bibles): “</span><span class="c4 c2" style="line-height: 1;">Then Solomon began to build the temple of the&nbsp;</span><span class="c4" style="line-height: 1;">Lord</span><span class="c4 c2" style="line-height: 1;">&nbsp;in Jerusalem on Mount Moriah, where the&nbsp;</span><span class="c4" style="line-height: 1;">Lord</span><span class="c4 c2" style="line-height: 1;">&nbsp;had appeared to his father David. It was on the threshing floor of Araunah the Jebusite, the place provided by David.”&nbsp;</span></span></span></div><div class="c0" style="background-color: white; direction: ltr; line-height: 1; orphans: 2; padding-bottom: 8pt; widows: 2;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span class="c3 c2" style="line-height: 1; text-decoration: underline;"><br /></span></span></span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span class="c3 c2" style="line-height: 1; text-decoration: underline;">When the temple in Jerusalem was built by its third king, it was at the very place where Abraham took Isaac in our first lesson</span><span class="c4 c2" style="line-height: 1;">. God directed Abraham to the spot where, for centuries, believers in God would go to connect with God, offering sacrifices for their sins, their thankfulness, their joy.&nbsp;</span></span></span></div><div class="c0" style="background-color: white; direction: ltr; line-height: 1; orphans: 2; padding-bottom: 8pt; widows: 2;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span class="c4 c2" style="line-height: 1;"><br /></span></span></span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span class="c4 c2" style="line-height: 1;">I think that that’s the second reason that this account of Abraham and Isaac is in there.</span><span class="c4" style="line-height: 1;">&nbsp;God had set aside that very spot to be the place where sacrifices of faith would be made to Him. Centuries later, of course, the need for those sacrifices would be eliminated when God sacrificed His Son on a cross. But for many centuries, Moriah was to be a site of sacrifice for God’s people.</span></span></span></div><div class="c0" style="background-color: white; direction: ltr; line-height: 1; orphans: 2; padding-bottom: 8pt; widows: 2;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span class="c4"><br /></span></span></span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span class="c4">I believe that there’s another important reason for the inclusion of this difficult text in Scripture. Please look at verse 7: “Isaac spoke up and said to his father Abraham, ‘Father?’ ‘Yes, my son?’ Abraham replied. ‘The fire and wood are here,’ Isaac said, ‘but where is the lamb for the burnt offering?’ Abraham answered, ‘God himself will provide the lamb for the burnt offering, my son.’...”&nbsp;</span></span></span></div><div class="c0" style="background-color: white; direction: ltr; line-height: 1; orphans: 2; padding-bottom: 8pt; widows: 2;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span class="c4"><br /></span></span></span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span class="c4">Please look at Hebrews 11:17-19 (page 844). This passage is part of a New Testament chapter called, “the faith hall of fame.” The preacher says: “By faith Abraham, when God tested him, offered Isaac as a sacrifice. He who had embraced the promises was about to sacrifice his one and only son,</span><span class="c4 c2">&nbsp;</span><span class="c4">even though God had said to him, ‘It is through Isaac that your offspring will be reckoned.’&nbsp;</span><span class="c1" style="font-style: italic;">Abraham reasoned that God could even raise the dead, and so in a manner of speaking he did receive Isaac back from death</span><span class="c4">.”&nbsp;</span></span></span></div><div class="c0" style="background-color: white; direction: ltr; line-height: 1; orphans: 2; padding-bottom: 8pt; widows: 2;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span class="c3" style="text-decoration: underline;"><br /></span></span></span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span class="c3" style="text-decoration: underline;">When Abraham took Isaac to Moriah, he did so knowing that even if Isaac’s life was taken, God is the God of new life, the God of resurrection</span><span class="c4">.&nbsp;</span></span></span></div><div class="c0" style="background-color: white; direction: ltr; line-height: 1; orphans: 2; padding-bottom: 8pt; widows: 2;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span class="c4"><br /></span></span></span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span class="c4">The impossible thing that God had commanded of Abraham was designed to deepen Abraham’s faith.&nbsp;</span></span></span></div><div class="c0" style="background-color: white; direction: ltr; line-height: 1; orphans: 2; padding-bottom: 8pt; widows: 2;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span class="c4"><br /></span></span></span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span class="c4">It’s like <a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Matthew+5:48">when Jesus commands that you and I be perfect, as our Father in heaven is perfect</a>. We know that we&nbsp;</span><span class="c1" style="font-style: italic;">can’t&nbsp;</span><span class="c4">be perfect; but when confronted by that command, in our helplessness, we learn to trust that God can impart His perfection and power to those who surrender to Him.&nbsp;</span></span></span></div><div class="c0" style="background-color: white; direction: ltr; line-height: 1; orphans: 2; padding-bottom: 8pt; widows: 2;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span class="c3" style="text-decoration: underline;"><br /></span></span></span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span class="c3" style="text-decoration: underline;">By faith, Abraham understood that not even death is an impediment to the God you and I are privileged to know through Jesus Christ</span><span class="c4">. Abraham knew that God can give back life to the dead.&nbsp;</span></span></span></div><div class="c0" style="background-color: white; direction: ltr; line-height: 1; orphans: 2; padding-bottom: 8pt; widows: 2;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span class="c4"><br /></span></span></span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span class="c4">In Christ, we know that too. And that, in turn, can give us the freedom to live each day without fear.&nbsp;</span></span></span></div><div class="c0" style="background-color: white; direction: ltr; line-height: 1; orphans: 2; padding-bottom: 8pt; widows: 2;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span class="c4"><br /></span></span></span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span class="c4">Christians are like people who watch a really frightening movie, but have been told before going to the theater how it’s all going to turn out. The scary parts are still scary. Our hearts will still pound at some scenes. Our palms will sweat. We’ll wonder how we’re going to make it through.&nbsp;</span><span class="c3" style="text-decoration: underline;">But we know that in the end, everything is going to be all right</span><span class="c4">.&nbsp;</span><span class="c3" style="text-decoration: underline;">This is a reality for all who believe in Jesus Christ</span><span class="c4">.</span></span></span></div><div class="c0" style="background-color: white; direction: ltr; line-height: 1; orphans: 2; padding-bottom: 8pt; widows: 2;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span class="c4"><br /></span></span></span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span class="c4">That’s a third important reason our first lesson is in the Bible.&nbsp;</span><span class="c3" style="text-decoration: underline;">But there is fourth and, I think, most important reason</span><span class="c4">. Verse 11: “...the angel of the&nbsp;</span><span class="c4">Lord</span><span class="c4">&nbsp;[in the Old Testament, this phrase can mean the very&nbsp;</span><span class="c1" style="font-style: italic;">voice</span><span class="c4">&nbsp;or&nbsp;</span><span class="c1" style="font-style: italic;">visage of God</span><span class="c4">] called out to him from heaven, ‘Abraham! Abraham!’ ‘Here I am,’ he replied. ‘Do not lay a hand on the boy,’ he said. ‘Do not do anything to him. Now I know that you fear God, because&nbsp;</span><span class="c1" style="font-style: italic;">you have not withheld from me your son, your only son</span><span class="c4">.’” Then, in verse 16, we read: “‘I swear by myself, declares the&nbsp;</span><span class="c4">Lord</span><span class="c4">, that because&nbsp;</span><span class="c1" style="font-style: italic;">you have done this and have not withheld your son, your only son</span><span class="c4">,</span><span class="c4 c2">&nbsp;</span><span class="c4">I will surely bless you and make your descendants as numerous as the stars in the sky and as the sand on the seashore. Your descendants will take possession of the cities of their enemies,</span><span class="c4 c2">&nbsp;</span><span class="c4">and through your offspring all nations on earth will be blessed, because you have obeyed me.’”</span></span></span></div><div class="c0" style="background-color: white; direction: ltr; line-height: 1; orphans: 2; padding-bottom: 8pt; widows: 2;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span class="c4"><br /></span></span></span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span class="c4">Listen:&nbsp;</span><span class="c3" style="text-decoration: underline;">Because Abraham had not withheld what was most important to Him, God was able to give what was most important to Him</span><span class="c4">.&nbsp;</span></span></span></div><div class="c0" style="background-color: white; direction: ltr; line-height: 1; orphans: 2; padding-bottom: 8pt; widows: 2;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span class="c4"><br /></span></span></span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span class="c4">What good and perfect gifts from God are we missing out on because we’re withholding our lives from Him?&nbsp;</span></span></span></div><div class="c0" style="background-color: white; direction: ltr; line-height: 1; orphans: 2; padding-bottom: 8pt; widows: 2;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span class="c3" style="text-decoration: underline;"><br /></span></span></span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span class="c3" style="text-decoration: underline;">When, by faith, we yield control over our lives to God, we’re ready to receive the new life, the constant help, and the eternal hope that God gives to all with faith in Christ</span><span class="c4">.&nbsp;</span></span></span></div><div class="c0" style="background-color: white; direction: ltr; line-height: 1; orphans: 2; padding-bottom: 8pt; widows: 2;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span class="c4"><br /></span></span></span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span class="c4">God didn’t ultimately require Abraham to sacrifice His son.&nbsp;</span></span></span></div><div class="c0" style="background-color: white; direction: ltr; line-height: 1; orphans: 2; padding-bottom: 8pt; widows: 2;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span class="c4"><br /></span></span></span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span class="c4">The sacrifice of Isaac would have done nothing but bring grief and loss to Abraham and the human race.&nbsp;</span></span></span></div><div class="c0" style="background-color: white; direction: ltr; line-height: 1; orphans: 2; padding-bottom: 8pt; widows: 2;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span class="c3" style="text-decoration: underline;"><br /></span></span></span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span class="c3" style="text-decoration: underline;">But Abraham passed God’s test by his willingness to give his son to God</span><span class="c4">.&nbsp;</span></span></span></div><div class="c0" style="background-color: white; direction: ltr; line-height: 1; orphans: 2; padding-bottom: 8pt; widows: 2;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span class="c4"><br /></span></span></span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span class="c4">What might God be asking us to be willing to surrender to Him in order to know God and His blessings, to be God’s blessings to others? Lent may be a good time for us to ask that question of ourselves and of God in prayer.</span></span></span></div><div class="c0" style="background-color: white; direction: ltr; line-height: 1; orphans: 2; padding-bottom: 8pt; widows: 2;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span class="c3" style="text-decoration: underline;"><br /></span></span></span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span class="c3" style="text-decoration: underline;">Abraham’s test is one that God Himself would later pass...painfully, but ultimately triumphantly</span><span class="c4">. Paul writes of God giving His Son in Romans 8:32: “</span><span class="c4 c2">He who did not spare [some translations say,&nbsp;</span><span class="c1 c2" style="font-style: italic;">did not withhold</span><span class="c4 c2">] his own Son, but gave him up for us all—how will he not also, along with him, graciously give us all things?”&nbsp;</span></span></span></div><div class="c0" style="background-color: white; direction: ltr; line-height: 1; orphans: 2; padding-bottom: 8pt; widows: 2;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span class="c3 c2" style="text-decoration: underline;"><br /></span></span></span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span class="c3 c2" style="text-decoration: underline;">The Lord who provided a ram for sacrifice to Abraham and Isaac on that day long ago provides <a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=John+1%3A29&amp;version=NIV">the lamb of God Who takes away the sin of the world</a> for all who dare surrender their all to Christ alone</span><span class="c4 c2">.&nbsp;</span></span></span></div><div class="c0" style="background-color: white; direction: ltr; line-height: 1; orphans: 2; padding-bottom: 8pt; widows: 2;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span class="c4 c2"><u>It’s to point us to this fact that, I believe, among other reasons, this passage is in the Bible</u>.</span></span></span></div><div class="c0" style="background-color: white; direction: ltr; line-height: 1; orphans: 2; padding-bottom: 8pt; widows: 2;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span class="c4 c2"><br /></span></span></span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span class="c4 c2">This is a difficult passage. I can’t explain everything about it.&nbsp;</span></span></span></div><div class="c0" style="background-color: white; direction: ltr; line-height: 1; orphans: 2; padding-bottom: 8pt; widows: 2;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span class="c4 c2"><br /></span></span></span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span class="c4 c2">It would make my life as a Christian and as a pastor a lot easier if I didn’t have to wrestle with it, if God would just eliminate it from His Word, the Bible.&nbsp;</span></span></span></div><div class="c0" style="background-color: white; direction: ltr; line-height: 1; orphans: 2; padding-bottom: 8pt; widows: 2;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span class="c4 c2"><br /></span></span></span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span class="c4 c2">But God never promised us easy lives.&nbsp;</span></span></span><br /><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span class="c4 c2"><br /></span></span></span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span class="c4 c2">Or lives in which we were always in control.&nbsp;</span></span></span><br /><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span class="c3 c2" style="text-decoration: underline;"><br /></span></span></span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span class="c3 c2" style="text-decoration: underline;">Instead, in Jesus Christ, God promised us new lives, lives filled with His blessings even in the midst of things we can’t understand or control here and now and then, beyond death, lives filled with perfect fellowship with Him and others in eternity for all who, like Abraham and Isaac, dare to surrender to Him</span><span class="c4 c2">.&nbsp;</span></span></span></div><div class="c0" style="background-color: white; direction: ltr; line-height: 1; orphans: 2; padding-bottom: 8pt; widows: 2;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span class="c4 c2"><br /></span></span></span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span class="c4 c2">Genesis 22:1-18 remains in our Bibles. May we glorify and thank God for the truths we&nbsp;</span><span class="c1 c2" style="font-style: italic;">can&nbsp;</span><span class="c4 c2">understand in these verses even as we wrestle with the mysteries in them that we will <i>never&nbsp;</i>understand this side of heaven. Amen</span></span></span></div><ins class="adsbygoogle" data-ad-client="ca-pub-5592130790838892" data-ad-slot="5335465718" style="display: inline-block; height: 280px; width: 336px;"></ins><script>(adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({}); </script>Mark Danielshttps://plus.google.com/107102845165909742951noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3543355.post-48910294918917917242015-02-21T23:18:00.000-05:002015-02-21T23:20:58.438-05:00I'm Happy Just to Dance with You by the BeatlesThis is a clip from the Beatles' first movie, <i>A Hard Day's Night</i>. The song was composed and led by George Harrison, one of his obligatory single songs on Beatles LPs in the early years. The band's sound was so fresh, so immediate, and so compelling from day one. That can be heard here, I think. And the harmonies...amazing.<br /><br />I love the lines, "If somebody tries to take my place / Let's pretend we just can't see his face."<br /><br /><iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/44YitKiVZ8E" width="420"></iframe>Mark Danielshttps://plus.google.com/107102845165909742951noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3543355.post-35504595989371749372015-02-18T17:36:00.001-05:002015-02-18T17:36:27.318-05:00A Life Well SpentI decided to use tomorrow's appointed chapter for the <i>5x5x5 Bible Reading Plan </i>for my time with God today. (For an explanation of what that's all about, go <a href="http://storage.cloversites.com/calvarychapelskyline1/documents/NT%201%20year.pdf">here</a>.) The reading was Acts 20. The thoughts here are all mine, so don't blame God for them.<br /><br />The verse that particularly struck me was Acts 20:24. It cites words spoken by the apostle Paul to the elders (the pastors) of the church in Ephesus as he said goodbye to them. (He was on his way to Jerusalem.) Paul didn't expect to see the Ephesian Christians again. Luke the evangelist, present for this meeting, quotes Paul as saying:<br /><blockquote class="tr_bq">"...<span class="text Acts-20-24" id="en-NIV-27651">I consider my life worth nothing to me; my only aim is to finish the race and complete the task the Lord Jesus has given me—the task of testifying to the good news of God’s grace."</span></blockquote><span class="text Acts-20-24" id="en-NIV-27651">Anyone familiar with Paul's New Testament writings will be persuaded that Luke is quoting Paul with total accuracy. The words are reminiscent of something Paul wrote to a young pastor named Timothy:</span><br /><blockquote class="tr_bq"><span class="text Acts-20-24" id="en-NIV-27651"><span class="text 2Tim-4-7" id="en-NIV-29878">I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith.</span> <span class="text 2Tim-4-8" id="en-NIV-29879">Now there is in store for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, will award to me on that day—and not only to me, but also to all who have longed for his appearing. (2 Timothy 4:7-8)</span></span></blockquote><span class="text Acts-20-24" id="en-NIV-27651"><span class="text 2Tim-4-8" id="en-NIV-29879">Big idea:</span></span><br /><blockquote class="tr_bq"><span class="text Acts-20-24" id="en-NIV-27651"><span class="text 2Tim-4-8" id="en-NIV-29879">This life is most fully lived when living this life to the fullest is <b>not </b>our aim. But when our lives are spent with the aim of "finishing the race" and "completing the task" the Lord has given to us with faithfulness, this life, even when marred by difficulties, is lived to the fullest.</span></span><br /><br /><span class="text Acts-20-24" id="en-NIV-27651"><span class="text 2Tim-4-8" id="en-NIV-29879">Every individual believer in Christ has differing gifts, talents, and experiences. So, each of us will finish the race and complete the task in different ways.</span></span><br /><br /><span class="text Acts-20-24" id="en-NIV-27651"><span class="text 2Tim-4-8" id="en-NIV-29879">But for each of us, <i>the task is always the same</i>: In response to the grace of God that saves all who trust in the crucified and risen Jesus, we're to give glory to God by loving God, loving others, and sharing Christ in order to make disciples in Jesus' Name. A life focused on these aims, whatever work we do, is a life well spent.</span></span></blockquote><span class="text Acts-20-24" id="en-NIV-27651"><span class="text 2Tim-4-8" id="en-NIV-29879">My prayer:</span></span><br /><blockquote class="tr_bq"><span class="text Acts-20-24" id="en-NIV-27651"><span class="text 2Tim-4-8" id="en-NIV-29879"><i>Lord, use me up to Your glory and help me to love You completely, love others as You loved us through Jesus, and share Christ with others with the prayer that they too, will have the forgiveness of sin and everlasting life Jesus came to our world to bring. In Jesus' Name. Amen</i> </span></span></blockquote><br /><br /><script async="" src="//pagead2.googlesyndication.com/pagead/js/adsbygoogle.js"></script><!-- John --><br /><ins class="adsbygoogle" data-ad-client="ca-pub-5592130790838892" data-ad-slot="5335465718" style="display: inline-block; height: 280px; width: 336px;"></ins><script>(adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({}); </script>Mark Danielshttps://plus.google.com/107102845165909742951noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3543355.post-35519731719677766682015-02-16T20:54:00.001-05:002015-02-16T20:54:58.062-05:00If the Israelites Had Livestock in the Wilderness, Why Did They Need the Manna and Quails?Good question. I don't have an answer.<br /><br />Thankfully, I'm not the only one who can say that. But, <a href="http://www.gotquestions.org/Israelites-eat-flocks.html">here are some interesting thoughts on the subject</a>.Mark Danielshttps://plus.google.com/107102845165909742951noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3543355.post-72384725454890052522015-02-16T08:33:00.002-05:002015-02-16T08:33:44.763-05:00When Confronting EvilRecently, I've begun using the <i>5x5x5 Bible Reading Plan </i>for my morning time with God. (You can download this plan and print it on two sides of single sheet of paper, from <a href="http://storage.cloversites.com/calvarychapelskyline1/documents/NT%201%20year.pdf">this site</a>.)<br /><br />With this plan, you spend five minutes a day on five days of the week reading one chapter of the New Testament. Then you choose one of five ways to dig deeper. My "dig deeper" method for now is to try capturing the big idea of sentence, paragraph, or chapter.<br /><br />Today, I've decided to home in on Acts 19:11-17. The apostle Paul is in the Asia Minor city of Ephesus. Paul taught the good news of new and everlasting life for all who believe in Jesus Christ. God used Paul to accomplish other things as well:<br /><blockquote class="tr_bq"><span class="text Acts-19-11" id="en-NIV-27597"><sup class="versenum">11&nbsp;</sup>God did extraordinary miracles through Paul,</span> <span class="text Acts-19-12" id="en-NIV-27598"><sup class="versenum">12&nbsp;</sup>so that even handkerchiefs and aprons that had touched him were taken to the sick, and their illnesses were cured and the evil spirits left them.</span><br /> <br /><span class="text Acts-19-13" id="en-NIV-27599"><sup class="versenum">13&nbsp;</sup>Some Jews [Remember that Paul was a Jew] who went around driving out evil spirits tried to invoke the name of the Lord Jesus over those who were demon-possessed. They would say, “In the name of the Jesus whom Paul preaches, I command you to come out.”</span> <span class="text Acts-19-14" id="en-NIV-27600"><sup class="versenum">14&nbsp;</sup>Seven sons of Sceva, a Jewish chief priest, were doing this.</span> <span class="text Acts-19-15" id="en-NIV-27601"><sup class="versenum">15&nbsp;</sup>One day the evil spirit answered them, “Jesus I know, and Paul I know about, but who are you?”</span> <span class="text Acts-19-16" id="en-NIV-27602"><sup class="versenum">16&nbsp;</sup>Then the man who had the evil spirit jumped on them and overpowered them all. He gave them such a beating that they ran out of the house naked and bleeding.</span><br /> <span class="text Acts-19-17" id="en-NIV-27603"><sup class="versenum"><br />17&nbsp;</sup>When this became known to the Jews and Greeks living in Ephesus, they were all seized with fear, and the name of the Lord Jesus was held in high honor. [Acts 19:11-17]</span></blockquote><span class="text Acts-19-17" id="en-NIV-27603">Big idea:&nbsp;</span><br /><blockquote class="tr_bq"><span class="text Acts-19-17" id="en-NIV-27603">When we confront evil in our own power, we are doomed (vv.15-16); although even this can redound to God's glory (v.17).</span></blockquote><span class="text Acts-19-17" id="en-NIV-27603">My prayer:</span><br /><blockquote class="tr_bq"><span class="text Acts-19-17" id="en-NIV-27603"><i>Lord, help me be prepared to confront evil each day, evil in myself and in the world, by staying connected to You. May I only confront evil in the Name and in the power of Jesus Christ alone. And even when, by my own sin, I fail to stand in Your power alone, bring glory to Your Name. Amen</i>&nbsp;</span> </blockquote><br />Mark Danielshttps://plus.google.com/107102845165909742951noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3543355.post-46498802363885201612015-02-15T19:33:00.000-05:002015-02-15T19:33:51.520-05:00How to See Jesus Christ<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: x-small;">[This was shared during worship with the disciples and guests of <a href="http://livingwaterlutheran.us/">Living Water Lutheran Church in Springboro, Ohio</a> earlier today.]</span><br /><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><b>Transfiguration Sunday</b></span><br /><span style="font-family: inherit;"><b><a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Mark+9%3A2-9&amp;version=NIV">Mark 9:2-9</a></b></span><br /><span class="c0" style="color: #333333; font-family: inherit;">On this Transfiguration Sunday, the last Sunday of the Epiphany season, we’re going to explore the Gospel of Mark’s account of the day that Jesus took three of His disciples--Peter, James, and John--to a mountaintop,&nbsp;</span><span class="c0 c1" style="color: #333333; font-family: inherit; text-decoration: underline;">where His glory as God was made plain to see</span><span class="c0" style="color: #333333; font-family: inherit;">.&nbsp;</span><br /><div class="c2" style="background-color: white; direction: ltr; line-height: 1; orphans: 2; widows: 2;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span class="c0" style="color: #333333;"><br /></span></span></div><div class="c2" style="background-color: white; direction: ltr; orphans: 2; widows: 2;"><span class="c0"><span style="color: #333333; font-family: inherit;"><span style="line-height: 1;">Don’t you wish that we could see Jesus’ glory so clearly today? I believe that we can, even in the midst of the humdrum&nbsp;</span></span><span style="color: #333333;"><span style="line-height: 16px;">and</span></span><span style="color: #333333; font-family: inherit;"><span style="line-height: 1;">&nbsp;difficulties of everyday life.</span></span></span></div><div class="c2 c4" style="background-color: white; direction: ltr; height: 11pt; line-height: 1; orphans: 2; widows: 2;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span class="c0" style="color: #333333;"></span></span></div><div class="c2" style="background-color: white; direction: ltr; orphans: 2; widows: 2;"><span class="c0"><span style="color: #333333; font-family: inherit;"><span style="line-height: 1;">To start our exploration of </span></span><span style="color: #333333;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="line-height: 1;">Jesus' transfiguration&nbsp;</span></span><span style="line-height: 16px;">and</span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="line-height: 1;">&nbsp;how it can help us to see Jesus, please turn to John 1:14. (It’s on page 739 in the sanctuary Bibles.) John, you remember, says that Jesus is the Word, Who was with God and was God. He then says this: “The Word became flesh and made His dwelling among us...”&nbsp;</span></span></span></span></div><div class="c2" style="background-color: white; direction: ltr; orphans: 2; widows: 2;"><span class="c0"><span style="color: #333333;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="line-height: 1;"><br /></span></span></span></span></div><div class="c2" style="background-color: white; direction: ltr; orphans: 2; widows: 2;"><span class="c0"><span style="color: #333333;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="line-height: 1;">In the Greek in which John (and the other New Testament writers) originally wrote his gospel, the word rendered as&nbsp;</span></span></span></span><span class="c3 c6" style="color: #333333; font-family: inherit; font-style: italic; line-height: 1;">made His dwelling among us</span><span class="c0" style="color: #333333; font-family: inherit; line-height: 1;">&nbsp;is&nbsp;</span><span class="c3" style="color: #333333; font-family: inherit; font-style: italic; line-height: 1;">eskenosen</span><span class="c0" style="color: #333333; font-family: inherit; line-height: 1;">. It’s the verb form of a noun,&nbsp;</span><span class="c3" style="color: #333333; font-family: inherit; font-style: italic; line-height: 1;">skene</span><span class="c0" style="color: #333333; font-family: inherit; line-height: 1;">, which means&nbsp;</span><span class="c3" style="color: #333333; font-family: inherit; font-style: italic; line-height: 1;">tabernacle</span><span class="c0" style="color: #333333; font-family: inherit; line-height: 1;">&nbsp;or&nbsp;</span><span class="c3" style="color: #333333; font-family: inherit; font-style: italic; line-height: 1;">tent</span><span class="c0" style="color: #333333; font-family: inherit; line-height: 1;">. John is saying that God Almighty took on flesh and experienced everything that we human beings experience because&nbsp;</span><span class="c3 c7" style="color: #333333; font-family: inherit; font-style: italic; font-weight: bold; line-height: 1;">He pitched His tent among us</span><span class="c0" style="color: #333333; font-family: inherit; line-height: 1;">.&nbsp;</span></div><div class="c2 c4" style="background-color: white; direction: ltr; height: 11pt; line-height: 1; orphans: 2; widows: 2;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span class="c0" style="color: #333333;"></span></span></div><div class="c2" style="background-color: white; direction: ltr; line-height: 1; orphans: 2; widows: 2;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span class="c0" style="color: #333333;">The idea of the tent or the tabernacle was important in the centuries before Jesus, in Old Testament times.&nbsp;</span></span></div><div class="c2" style="background-color: white; direction: ltr; line-height: 1; orphans: 2; widows: 2;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span class="c0" style="color: #333333;"><br /></span></span></div><div class="c2" style="background-color: white; direction: ltr; line-height: 1; orphans: 2; widows: 2;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span class="c0" style="color: #333333;">In the 21st. century BC, God called a couple He later named Abraham and Sarah to leave their comfortable lives in the land of Ur and go live in a place God would show them after they’d gotten their start. God said that He would also make this childless and elderly couple the ancestors of God’s own people, of which we as people who confess Jesus Christ as Savior and God, are members today. From the moment God called, Abraham and Sarah lived in&nbsp;</span><span class="c3" style="color: #333333; font-style: italic;">tents</span><span class="c0" style="color: #333333;">&nbsp;or&nbsp;</span><span class="c3" style="color: #333333; font-style: italic;">tabernacles</span><span class="c0" style="color: #333333;">.</span></span></div><div class="c2 c4" style="background-color: white; direction: ltr; height: 11pt; line-height: 1; orphans: 2; widows: 2;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span class="c0" style="color: #333333;"></span></span></div><div class="c2" style="background-color: white; direction: ltr; line-height: 1; orphans: 2; widows: 2;"><span class="c0" style="color: #333333;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Some six-hundred years later, the descendants of Abraham and Sarah, having been freed from slavery in Egypt by God, spent forty years in a wilderness before entering the land God had promised their ancestors. In the wilderness, they lived in tents.&nbsp;</span></span></div><div class="c2" style="background-color: white; direction: ltr; line-height: 1; orphans: 2; widows: 2;"><span class="c0" style="color: #333333;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></span></div><div class="c2" style="background-color: white; direction: ltr; line-height: 1; orphans: 2; widows: 2;"><span class="c0" style="color: #333333;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">During their journey, the Old Testament says, God led them by a cloud. God was in the cloud, a bright and overwhelming presence shining within it. God’s perfection would kill any imperfect human being who came directly into His presence and, in fact, Abraham’s descendants--the Hebrews, the Israelites--begged their earthly leader Moses not to let them be exposed to God’s presence. The cloud in which God’s presence, holiness, and glory were shrouded were OK at a distance. But they didn’t want to see God up close.</span></span></div><div class="c2 c4" style="background-color: white; direction: ltr; height: 11pt; line-height: 1; orphans: 2; widows: 2;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span class="c0" style="color: #333333;"></span></span></div><div class="c2" style="background-color: white; direction: ltr; line-height: 1; orphans: 2; widows: 2;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><u><span class="c0" style="color: #333333;"><br /></span></u></span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><u><span class="c0" style="color: #333333;">The fact is though, God has&nbsp;</span><span class="c3" style="color: #333333; font-style: italic;">never</span></u><span class="c0" style="color: #333333;"><u>&nbsp;wanted to be removed from us</u>. God cares about us. <u>And while we should&nbsp;</u></span><span class="c3" style="color: #333333; font-style: italic;"><u>always</u></span><span class="c0" style="color: #333333;"><u>&nbsp;approach God with reverence, awe, and holy fear, we also can treasure knowing that we were made for intimacy with God, an intimacy that God craves to have with us</u>. That’s why God didn’t want to stay forever in the cloud away from His people.</span></span></div><div class="c2 c4" style="background-color: white; direction: ltr; height: 11pt; line-height: 1; orphans: 2; widows: 2;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span class="c0" style="color: #333333;"></span></span></div><div class="c2" style="background-color: white; direction: ltr; line-height: 1; orphans: 2; widows: 2;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span class="c0" style="color: #333333;"><br /></span></span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span class="c0" style="color: #333333;">Turn to Exodus 25:8 (page 56). There, God is giving instructions to Moses on how His people are to worship Him and He says: “...have them make a sanctuary for Me, and I will&nbsp;</span><span class="c3 c6" style="color: #333333; font-style: italic;">dwell among them</span><span class="c0" style="color: #333333;">.</span><span class="c0" style="color: #333333;">” God was instructing the people: “Pitch a tent for Me, that I may live among you.”&nbsp;</span></span></div><div class="c2" style="background-color: white; direction: ltr; line-height: 1; orphans: 2; widows: 2;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span class="c0" style="color: #333333;"><br /></span></span></div><div class="c2" style="background-color: white; direction: ltr; line-height: 1; orphans: 2; widows: 2;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span class="c0" style="color: #333333;">For many years, as we mentioned, God’s people lived in tents while the presence of God lived among them in a tent that also housed the Ten Commandments. In the very inner sanctum of this tent was a place called “the holy of holies,” the place where the holiness of God dwelt on earth.&nbsp;</span></span></div><div class="c2" style="background-color: white; direction: ltr; line-height: 1; orphans: 2; widows: 2;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span class="c0" style="color: #333333;"><br /></span></span></div><div class="c2" style="background-color: white; direction: ltr; line-height: 1; orphans: 2; widows: 2;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span class="c0" style="color: #333333;">Five hundred years after God gave those instructions to Moses, King Solomon built a temple which, like the tent in the wilderness, was a copy of God’s heavenly throne room. In the midst of it was the tabernacle, the holy of holies, the place where God pitched His tent. A curtain concealed the holy of holies, a wall that the people feared to breach, afraid, just like their ancestors, of meeting God face to face.</span></span></div><div class="c2 c4" style="background-color: white; direction: ltr; height: 11pt; line-height: 1; orphans: 2; widows: 2;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span class="c0" style="color: #333333;"></span></span></div><div class="c2" style="background-color: white; direction: ltr; line-height: 1; orphans: 2; widows: 2;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span class="c0" style="color: #333333;">Now, we come to our Gospel lesson, Mark 9:2-9. Take a look at it, please.&nbsp;</span></span></div><div class="c2" style="background-color: white; direction: ltr; line-height: 1; orphans: 2; widows: 2;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span class="c0" style="color: #333333;"><br /></span></span></div><div class="c2" style="background-color: white; direction: ltr; line-height: 1; orphans: 2; widows: 2;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span class="c0" style="color: #333333;">Six days before the events the lesson recounts, Jesus told His disciples: “</span><span class="c10 c12" style="background-color: #fdfeff; color: #001320;">Truly I tell you, some who are standing here will not taste death before they see that the kingdom of God has come with power.</span><span class="c0" style="color: #333333;">”</span></span></div><div class="c2 c4" style="background-color: white; direction: ltr; height: 11pt; line-height: 1; orphans: 2; widows: 2;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span class="c0" style="color: #333333;"></span></span></div><div class="c2" style="background-color: white; direction: ltr; line-height: 1; orphans: 2; widows: 2;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span class="c0" style="color: #333333;"><br /></span></span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span class="c0" style="color: #333333;">As our lesson begins, Jesus takes His core leadership group--Peter, James, and John--to a mountaintop. While there, verse 3 says, Jesus “</span><span class="c0" style="color: #333333;">was transfigured before them. His clothes became dazzling white, whiter than anyone in the world could bleach them.</span><span class="c0" style="color: #333333;">” At that moment, Peter, James, and John, though they didn’t yet understand it all, saw Jesus in the bright splendor of His deity. <u>Jesus as Jesus had said would happen six days earlier, they saw the kingdom of God come with power</u>!</span></span></div><div class="c2 c4" style="background-color: white; direction: ltr; height: 11pt; line-height: 1; orphans: 2; widows: 2;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span class="c0" style="color: #333333;"></span></span></div><div class="c2" style="background-color: white; direction: ltr; line-height: 1; orphans: 2; widows: 2;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span class="c0" style="color: #333333;"><br /></span></span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span class="c0" style="color: #333333;">Look now at verse 4: “</span><span class="c0" style="color: #333333;">And there appeared before them Elijah and Moses…”</span><span class="c0" style="color: #333333;">&nbsp;The main strands of the Old Testament scriptures are the Law and the Prophets. The Law and the Prophets pointed to Jesus and <u>here was Moses, the great Lawgiver, and Elijah, Israel’s greatest prophet, conversing with Jesus</u>.&nbsp;</span></span></div><div class="c2 c4" style="background-color: white; direction: ltr; height: 11pt; line-height: 1; orphans: 2; widows: 2;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span class="c0" style="color: #333333;"></span></span></div><div class="c2" style="background-color: white; direction: ltr; line-height: 1; orphans: 2; widows: 2;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span class="c0" style="color: #333333;">Look at what happens next, in verse 5. “</span><span class="c9 c6" style="color: #333333;">‘Rabbi, it is good for us to be here. Let us put up three&nbsp;</span><span class="c9 c6 c11" style="color: #333333; font-style: italic;">shelters</span><span class="c6 c9" style="color: #333333;">...’”&nbsp;</span></span></div><div class="c2" style="background-color: white; direction: ltr; line-height: 1; orphans: 2; widows: 2;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span class="c0" style="color: #333333;"><br /></span></span></div><div class="c2" style="background-color: white; direction: ltr; line-height: 1; orphans: 2; widows: 2;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span class="c0" style="color: #333333;">Can you guess what the word translated as shelters might be in the original New Testament Greek? <u>It’s&nbsp;</u></span><span class="c3" style="color: #333333; font-style: italic;"><u>skenas</u></span><span class="c0" style="color: #333333;"><u>, the plural word for tents or tabernacles</u>.&nbsp;</span></span></div><div class="c2" style="background-color: white; direction: ltr; line-height: 1; orphans: 2; widows: 2;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span class="c0" style="color: #333333;"><br /></span></span></div><div class="c2" style="background-color: white; direction: ltr; line-height: 1; orphans: 2; widows: 2;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span class="c0" style="color: #333333;">Jesus says nothing to Peter’s suggestion. But there are&nbsp;</span><span class="c5 c1" style="color: #333333; text-decoration: underline;">two problems with what Peter wants to do</span><span class="c0" style="color: #333333;">. &nbsp;</span></span></div><div class="c2" style="background-color: white; direction: ltr; line-height: 1; orphans: 2; widows: 2;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span class="c0" style="color: #333333;"><br /></span></span></div><div class="c2" style="background-color: white; direction: ltr; line-height: 1; orphans: 2; widows: 2;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span class="c0" style="color: #333333;">First:&nbsp;</span><span class="c0 c1" style="color: #333333; text-decoration: underline;">Peter is putting Moses and Elijah on the same level with Jesus</span></span><span class="c0" style="color: #333333; font-family: inherit; line-height: 1;">. Peter still doesn’t understand that Jesus is God in human flesh.&nbsp;</span></div><div class="c2" style="background-color: white; direction: ltr; line-height: 1; orphans: 2; widows: 2;"><span class="c0" style="color: #333333; font-family: inherit; line-height: 1;"><br /></span></div><div class="c2" style="background-color: white; direction: ltr; line-height: 1; orphans: 2; widows: 2;"><span class="c0" style="color: #333333; font-family: inherit; line-height: 1;">Second:&nbsp;</span><span class="c0 c1" style="color: #333333; font-family: inherit; line-height: 1; text-decoration: underline;">When the Word became flesh and pitched His tent among us, God signaled that He was busting out of the confines of tents or clouds or any of the other straitjackets in which we try to put God</span><span class="c0" style="color: #333333; font-family: inherit; line-height: 1;">.&nbsp;</span></div><div class="c2" style="background-color: white; direction: ltr; line-height: 1; orphans: 2; widows: 2;"><span class="c0" style="color: #333333; font-family: inherit; line-height: 1;"><br /></span></div><div class="c2" style="background-color: white; direction: ltr; line-height: 1; orphans: 2; widows: 2;"><span class="c0" style="color: #333333; font-family: inherit; line-height: 1;">God wants to come into your life right now, today, with all its messiness and drama, boredom and challenge, joy and sorrow.&nbsp;</span></div><div class="c2" style="background-color: white; direction: ltr; line-height: 1; orphans: 2; widows: 2;"><span class="c0" style="color: #333333; font-family: inherit; line-height: 1;"><br /></span></div><div class="c2" style="background-color: white; direction: ltr; line-height: 1; orphans: 2; widows: 2;"><span class="c0" style="color: #333333; font-family: inherit; line-height: 1;">God wants to be your Lord, Friend, and Savior.&nbsp;</span></div><div class="c2" style="background-color: white; direction: ltr; line-height: 1; orphans: 2; widows: 2;"><span class="c0" style="color: #333333; font-family: inherit; line-height: 1;"><br /></span></div><div class="c2" style="background-color: white; direction: ltr; line-height: 1; orphans: 2; widows: 2;"><span class="c0" style="color: #333333; font-family: inherit; line-height: 1;">God doesn’t want you to wait for the sweet by and by to have an intimate relationship with Him.&nbsp;</span></div><div class="c2" style="background-color: white; direction: ltr; line-height: 1; orphans: 2; widows: 2;"><span class="c0" style="color: #333333; font-family: inherit; line-height: 1;"><br /></span></div><div class="c2" style="background-color: white; direction: ltr; line-height: 1; orphans: 2; widows: 2;"><span class="c0" style="color: #333333; font-family: inherit; line-height: 1;">God wants in on every part of Your life, to rip out all the sin and hell that dwells within you (and me), and to give you (and me) new life.&nbsp;</span></div><div class="c2" style="background-color: white; direction: ltr; line-height: 1; orphans: 2; widows: 2;"><span class="c0" style="color: #333333; font-family: inherit; line-height: 1;"><br /></span></div><div class="c2" style="background-color: white; direction: ltr; line-height: 1; orphans: 2; widows: 2;"><span class="c0" style="color: #333333; font-family: inherit; line-height: 1;">Peter doesn't understand any of these things about God yet. He has no idea that while grace is free, being Jesus’ disciple costs us the loss of everything that would keep us from following Him.&nbsp;</span></div><div class="c2" style="background-color: white; direction: ltr; line-height: 1; orphans: 2; widows: 2;"><span class="c0" style="color: #333333; font-family: inherit; line-height: 1;"><br /></span></div><div class="c2" style="background-color: white; direction: ltr; line-height: 1; orphans: 2; widows: 2;"><span class="c0" style="color: #333333; font-family: inherit; line-height: 1;">It's out of this ignorance, Mark tells us, that Peter suggests building coequal dwelling places or monuments for Jesus, Moses, and Elijah. Mark says in verse 6 that Peter “</span><span class="c0" style="color: #333333; font-family: inherit; line-height: 1;">did not know what to say, they [Peter, James, and John] were so frightened.”</span></div><div class="c2 c4" style="background-color: white; direction: ltr; height: 11pt; line-height: 1; orphans: 2; widows: 2;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span class="c0" style="color: #333333;"></span></span></div><div class="c2" style="background-color: white; direction: ltr; line-height: 1; orphans: 2; widows: 2;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span class="c0" style="color: #333333;">The fear of the three disciples no doubt increased with what happened next. Verse 7: “</span><span class="c0" style="color: #333333;">Then a cloud appeared and covered them, and a voice came from the cloud: ‘This is my Son, whom I love. Listen to him!’”</span><span class="c0" style="color: #333333;">&nbsp;God the Father confirmed that Jesus is God the Son.&nbsp;</span></span></div><div class="c2" style="background-color: white; direction: ltr; line-height: 1; orphans: 2; widows: 2;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span class="c0" style="color: #333333;"><br /></span></span></div><div class="c2" style="background-color: white; direction: ltr; line-height: 1; orphans: 2; widows: 2;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span class="c0" style="color: #333333;">Not long after these events, the God Who came to tabernacle among us would die on a cross and, strangely, the curtain of the temple, the wall between God and the human race would tear in two, from top to bottom.&nbsp;</span><span class="c0 c1" style="color: #333333; text-decoration: underline;">No longer would human beings need to offer sacrifices or live without the constant, sustaining presence of God in their lives</span><span class="c0" style="color: #333333;">.&nbsp;</span></span></div><div class="c2" style="background-color: white; direction: ltr; line-height: 1; orphans: 2; widows: 2;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span class="c0 c1" style="color: #333333; text-decoration: underline;"><br /></span></span></div><div class="c2" style="background-color: white; direction: ltr; line-height: 1; orphans: 2; widows: 2;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span class="c0 c1" style="color: #333333; text-decoration: underline;">Through Jesus, all who turn from sin in His Name and trust in Him alone as their God and King can have immediate access to God</span><span class="c0" style="color: #333333;">. That is the greatest miracle ever.</span></span></div><div class="c2 c4" style="background-color: white; direction: ltr; height: 11pt; line-height: 1; orphans: 2; widows: 2;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span class="c0" style="color: #333333;"></span></span></div><div class="c2" style="background-color: white; direction: ltr; line-height: 1; orphans: 2; widows: 2;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span class="c0" style="color: #333333;">Need your sins forgiven or help with resisting temptation? Approach God in Jesus’ Name.&nbsp;</span></span></div><div class="c2" style="background-color: white; direction: ltr; line-height: 1; orphans: 2; widows: 2;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span class="c0" style="color: #333333;"><br /></span></span></div><div class="c2" style="background-color: white; direction: ltr; line-height: 1; orphans: 2; widows: 2;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span class="c0" style="color: #333333;">Need guidance on how to live your life? Come to God in Jesus’ Name.&nbsp;</span></span></div><div class="c2" style="background-color: white; direction: ltr; line-height: 1; orphans: 2; widows: 2;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span class="c0" style="color: #333333;"><br /></span></span></div><div class="c2" style="background-color: white; direction: ltr; line-height: 1; orphans: 2; widows: 2;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span class="c0" style="color: #333333;">Wrestling with a tragedy or setback that has befallen you? You may not get an answer to the question of why, but you will get God by your side.&nbsp;</span></span></div><div class="c2" style="background-color: white; direction: ltr; line-height: 1; orphans: 2; widows: 2;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span class="c0 c1" style="color: #333333; text-decoration: underline;"><br /></span></span></div><div class="c2" style="background-color: white; direction: ltr; line-height: 1; orphans: 2; widows: 2;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span class="c0 c1" style="color: #333333; text-decoration: underline;">Jesus Himself was and is the only sacrifice needed to bridge the gulf between a perfect God and imperfect people like you and me</span><span class="c0" style="color: #333333;">.&nbsp;</span></span></div><div class="c2 c4" style="background-color: white; direction: ltr; height: 11pt; line-height: 1; orphans: 2; widows: 2;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span class="c0" style="color: #333333;"></span></span></div><div class="c2" style="background-color: white; direction: ltr; line-height: 1; orphans: 2; widows: 2;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span class="c0" style="color: #333333;">In verse 9, Jesus tells Peter, James, and John “</span><span class="c0" style="color: #333333;">not to tell anyone what they had seen until the Son of Man had risen from the dead.”&nbsp;</span></span></div><div class="c2" style="background-color: white; direction: ltr; line-height: 1; orphans: 2; widows: 2;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span class="c0" style="color: #333333;"><br /></span></span></div><div class="c2" style="background-color: white; direction: ltr; line-height: 1; orphans: 2; widows: 2;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span class="c0" style="color: #333333;">The reasons for Jesus’ instructions were simple:</span><span class="c0" style="color: #333333;">&nbsp;</span><span class="c5 c1 c7" style="color: #333333; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: underline;">No one&nbsp;</span><span class="c5 c1 c7" style="color: #333333; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: underline;">can really see Jesus for Who He really is, God in human flesh, until we see the cross of Jesus and know that it was our sins--yours and mine--that made Jesus’ death necessary</span><span class="c0" style="color: #333333;">.&nbsp;</span><span class="c5" style="color: #333333;">Romans 6:23 tells us that “the wages of sin is death.” Death is what we deserve for our sin.&nbsp;</span><span class="c0" style="color: #333333;">But sinless Jesus took the wages we earned onto Himself.&nbsp;</span></span></div><div class="c2" style="background-color: white; direction: ltr; line-height: 1; orphans: 2; widows: 2;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span class="c0" style="color: #333333;"><br /></span></span></div><div class="c2" style="background-color: white; direction: ltr; line-height: 1; orphans: 2; widows: 2;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span class="c0" style="color: #333333;">And&nbsp;</span><span class="c5 c1 c7" style="color: #333333; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: underline;">no one&nbsp;</span><span class="c5 c1 c7" style="color: #333333; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: underline;">can see Jesus for Who He really is until we accept by faith the testimony about His actual, physical resurrection from the dead</span><span class="c0" style="color: #333333;">.&nbsp;</span><span class="c0 c1" style="color: #333333; text-decoration: underline;">Jesus rising from the dead is the sure sign that He and He alone is the only way to life with God</span><span class="c0" style="color: #333333;">.&nbsp;</span></span></div><div class="c2" style="background-color: white; direction: ltr; line-height: 1; orphans: 2; widows: 2;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span class="c0" style="color: #333333;"><br /></span></span></div><div class="c2" style="background-color: white; direction: ltr; line-height: 1; orphans: 2; widows: 2;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span class="c0" style="color: #333333;">Until Jesus' death and resurrection happened, no matter how amazed Peter, James, and John must have been by Jesus' transfiguration, they could not see Who Jesus really was...and is. Until Jesus' death and resurrection call us to die to sin and death so that we may rise and live in what <i>The Small Catechism </i>calls, "everlasting righteousness, innocence, and blessedness."&nbsp;</span></span></div><div class="c2" style="background-color: white; direction: ltr; line-height: 1; orphans: 2; widows: 2;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span class="c0" style="color: #333333;"><br /></span></span></div><div class="c2" style="background-color: white; direction: ltr; line-height: 1; orphans: 2; widows: 2;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span class="c0" style="color: #333333;">Peter, James, and John didn't yet know what Jesus had come to bring into our lives.&nbsp;</span><span class="c0 c1" style="color: #333333; text-decoration: underline;">But today, on this side of Christ’s death and resurrection, God’s Holy Spirit sets us free to tell the world exactly Who Jesus is</span><span class="c0" style="color: #333333;">.&nbsp;</span><span class="c0 c7" style="color: #333333; font-weight: bold;">It’s a freedom we exercise all too infrequently!</span></span></div><div class="c2 c4" style="background-color: white; direction: ltr; height: 11pt; line-height: 1; orphans: 2; widows: 2;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span class="c0" style="color: #333333;"></span></span></div><div class="c2" style="background-color: white; direction: ltr; line-height: 1; orphans: 2; widows: 2;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span class="c0" style="color: #333333;">Today, at this moment, you and I can't see the risen Jesus physically. But we&nbsp;</span><span class="c3 c6" style="color: #333333; font-style: italic;">can</span><span class="c0" style="color: #333333;">&nbsp;see Jesus by faith in Him.&nbsp;</span></span></div><div class="c2" style="background-color: white; direction: ltr; line-height: 1; orphans: 2; widows: 2;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span class="c0" style="color: #333333;"><br /></span></span></div><div class="c2" style="background-color: white; direction: ltr; line-height: 1; orphans: 2; widows: 2;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span class="c0" style="color: #333333;">We talk a lot about reaching up, reaching in, and reaching out here at Living Water.&nbsp;</span><span class="c0 c1" style="color: #333333; text-decoration: underline;">These are the three ways that you and I can see Jesus in our lives, the three ways in which His glory is revealed and we grow in our hope and confidence in Him</span><span class="c0" style="color: #333333;">.&nbsp;</span></span></div><div class="c2" style="background-color: white; direction: ltr; line-height: 1; orphans: 2; widows: 2;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span class="c3 c6" style="color: #333333; font-style: italic;"><br /></span></span></div><div class="c2" style="background-color: white; direction: ltr; line-height: 1; orphans: 2; widows: 2;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span class="c3 c6" style="color: #333333; font-style: italic;">In response to what God has done for us in Jesus</span><span class="c0" style="color: #333333;">, we&nbsp;</span><span class="c0 c1" style="color: #333333; text-decoration: underline;">reach up</span><span class="c0" style="color: #333333;">&nbsp;to worship God, to receive His grace and forgiveness.&nbsp;</span></span></div><div class="c2" style="background-color: white; direction: ltr; line-height: 1; orphans: 2; widows: 2;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span class="c3 c6" style="color: #333333; font-style: italic;"><br /></span></span></div><div class="c2" style="background-color: white; direction: ltr; line-height: 1; orphans: 2; widows: 2;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span class="c3 c6" style="color: #333333; font-style: italic;">In response to what God has done for us in Jesus</span><span class="c0" style="color: #333333;">, we&nbsp;</span><span class="c0 c1" style="color: #333333; text-decoration: underline;">reach in</span><span class="c0" style="color: #333333;">, sharing fellowship with His Church, engaging in small group Bible studies, praying and encouraging our fellow believers in Christ.&nbsp;</span></span></div><div class="c2" style="background-color: white; direction: ltr; line-height: 1; orphans: 2; widows: 2;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span class="c3 c6" style="color: #333333; font-style: italic;"><br /></span></span></div><div class="c2" style="background-color: white; direction: ltr; line-height: 1; orphans: 2; widows: 2;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span class="c3 c6" style="color: #333333; font-style: italic;">In response to what God has done for us in Jesus</span><span class="c0" style="color: #333333;">, we&nbsp;</span><span class="c0 c1" style="color: #333333; text-decoration: underline;">reach out</span><span class="c0" style="color: #333333;">&nbsp;to unbelievers to make disciples, telling others the good news of new life for all who repent and believe in Jesus, AND we serve others in Christ’s Name.</span></span></div><div class="c2" style="background-color: white; direction: ltr; line-height: 1; orphans: 2; widows: 2;"><span class="c0" style="color: #333333;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></span></div><div class="c2" style="background-color: white; direction: ltr; line-height: 1; orphans: 2; widows: 2;"><span style="color: #333333; font-family: inherit; line-height: 1;"><u>Jesus wants to pitch His tent in your life every day</u>.&nbsp;</span></div><div class="c2" style="background-color: white; direction: ltr; line-height: 1; orphans: 2; widows: 2;"><span style="color: #333333; font-family: inherit; line-height: 1;"><br /></span></div><div class="c2" style="background-color: white; direction: ltr; line-height: 1; orphans: 2; widows: 2;"><span style="color: #333333; font-family: inherit; line-height: 1;">He wants to live with you now as well as live with you in eternity.&nbsp;</span></div><div class="c2" style="background-color: white; direction: ltr; line-height: 1; orphans: 2; widows: 2;"><span style="color: #333333; font-family: inherit; line-height: 1;"><br /></span></div><div class="c2" style="background-color: white; direction: ltr; line-height: 1; orphans: 2; widows: 2;"><span style="color: #333333; font-family: inherit; line-height: 1;"><b>Taking God’s extended hand of grace to reach up, reach in, and reach out, is how we can see Jesus ever more clearly in this life</b>.&nbsp;</span></div><div class="c2" style="background-color: white; direction: ltr; line-height: 1; orphans: 2; widows: 2;"><span style="color: #333333; font-family: inherit; line-height: 1;"><br /></span></div><div class="c2" style="background-color: white; direction: ltr; line-height: 1; orphans: 2; widows: 2;"><span style="color: #333333; font-family: inherit; line-height: 1;"><b>And, we can be certain, with face to face clarity in eternity. &nbsp;May we always see Christ clearly, starting now</b>. Amen</span></div><div class="c2" style="background-color: white; direction: ltr; line-height: 1; orphans: 2; widows: 2;"><span style="color: #333333; font-family: inherit; line-height: 1;"><br /></span></div><div class="c2" style="background-color: white; direction: ltr; line-height: 1; orphans: 2; widows: 2;"><span style="color: #333333; font-family: inherit; line-height: 1;"><br /></span></div><br /><br /><script async="" src="//pagead2.googlesyndication.com/pagead/js/adsbygoogle.js"></script><!-- John --><br /><ins class="adsbygoogle" data-ad-client="ca-pub-5592130790838892" data-ad-slot="5335465718" style="display: inline-block; height: 280px; width: 336px;"></ins><script>(adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({}); </script>Mark Danielshttps://plus.google.com/107102845165909742951noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3543355.post-27787677570378712002015-02-14T16:55:00.000-05:002015-02-14T16:56:21.186-05:00Putting Valentine's Day in PerspectiveSundries posted this over on Facebook.<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-IAr28PM57PI/VN_DESHhumI/AAAAAAAAB6M/85NYB3dETjc/s1600/10952930_10205113634533528_4902077886412218505_n.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-IAr28PM57PI/VN_DESHhumI/AAAAAAAAB6M/85NYB3dETjc/s1600/10952930_10205113634533528_4902077886412218505_n.jpg" height="320" width="247" /></a></div><br /><br /><br />Mark Danielshttps://plus.google.com/107102845165909742951noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3543355.post-46098603879542044462015-02-14T16:48:00.000-05:002015-02-14T16:55:28.765-05:00My Valentine by Paul McCartney (and a little more)<br /><iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/f4dzzv81X9w" width="560"></iframe> <br /><br />McCartney's song, written for his <i>Kisses on the Bottom</i>, which celebrated some of the great tunes of the mid-twentieth century made popular by the crooners his parents loved listening to when Macca was a kid. <i>My Valentine </i>is a joyful song set to a minor keyed, bluesy tune.<br /><br />In this video, the guitar solo is actually played by McCartney's buddy, the actor Johnny Depp. On the original track, the solo is provided by Eric Clapton.<br /><br />When McCartney came to the US to promote the LP, he re-entered the truly iconic Capitol Records studios, where he'd recorded <i>Kisses</i>, for an intimate concert that was live streamed on iTunes. Macca's voice was not at its best for that performance. (His voice has been in marked decline over the past decade, sadly.)<br /><br />But the atmosphere of a live performance with a band anchored by Diana Krall on piano was enjoyable, as was Joe Walsh's solo on <i>My Valentine</i>.<br /><br />I love this song.Mark Danielshttps://plus.google.com/107102845165909742951noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3543355.post-38347596352449172362015-02-14T00:47:00.001-05:002015-02-21T12:44:51.280-05:00My Hope for Brian WilliamsI wrote about Brian Williams and the allurement of celebrity <a href="http://markdaniels.blogspot.com/2015/02/the-sadness-of-brian-williams-fall.html">here</a>.<br /><br />But my hope is that the country, which has seemed so gleeful in its condemnation of and laughter at Brian Williams, will forgive him and that NBC will reinstate Williams once the anchor has done "his time."<br /><br />How many of us, prone to exaggeration and telling what I call, "heroes of our own story" tales, haven't been guilty, unintentionally or otherwise, of the same wrongs as Williams? And most of us haven't been in the public eye when we've told such stories, meaning that we're not as widely and unceremoniously vilified for our exaggerations as Brian Williams has been.<br /><br />The Williams story is, as I suggested in that earlier post, cautionary. Those with aspirations to be famous should think twice about their ambitions. Fame is like money, of which Jesus said: "What good is it for someone to gain the whole world, yet forfeit their soul?" (Mark 8:36) If fame or money become our aims, we may gain both but lose ourselves in the process.<br /><br />Brian Williams, unlike many in the public eye, has admitted his wrong. Forthrightly, without excuses. <u>Chastened, this man who has been, it seems, a responsible journalist, should get the grace and second chance that we all assume we ourselves deserve</u>.<br /><br />Some feel that Williams deserves no consideration because he has a lot of money, as though money softens the blow, as though money were his motivation for being a journalist. These ideas miss the point. No amount of money can compensate for the guilt and regret Williams must feel right now.<br /><br />Nor can it give him the sense of fulfillment he likely felt from pursuing his calling as a fair-minded journalist.<br /><br />Unlike some public figures, whose "apologies" are nothing but recriminations toward those who hold them accountable or who view their mea culpas as pro forma hoops they need to jump through in order to gain the honors they believe they deserve, Williams seems genuinely repentant.<br /><br />His suspension seems to be an appropriate consequence of his breach of journalistic propriety. In other words, the "punishment" fits the "crime."<br /><br />But, having accepted his medicine, Brian Williams shouldn't be forced to be a scapegoat wandering in the wilderness for the rest of his life.<br /><br />In six months' time, Williams should be back at his desk on the <i>NBC Nightly News</i>. If not there, some other news organization should use his considerable talents.<br /><br />At least that's what I think.Mark Danielshttps://plus.google.com/107102845165909742951noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3543355.post-36616413457854372862015-02-11T18:02:00.000-05:002015-02-11T18:05:16.526-05:00Why Were Old Testament Priests Required to Be Perfect Physical Specimens?<span style="font-family: inherit;">At <a href="http://livingwaterlutheran.us/">Living Water Lutheran Church</a>, we're reading the Bible together over the course of 2015 and holding weekly gatherings to discuss the twenty-one chapters we've read that week.</span><br /><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: inherit;">At last night's discussion, a really good question was posed: Why were the priests who offered the sacrifices made daily first in a tent in the wilderness and later at the temple in Jerusalem, required to be unmarred by physical defect?</span><br /><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: inherit;">Levticus 21:17-23 contains this uncomfortable set of qualifications from God:</span><br /><blockquote class="tr_bq"><span id="docs-internal-guid-fa62a4a2-7aa3-e118-bf9a-1cbfa2e963a0" style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">For the generations to come none of your descendants who has a defect may come near to offer the food of his God.</span><span style="background-color: white; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span><span style="vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">No man who has any defect may come near: no man who is blind or lame, disfigured or deformed;</span><span style="font-weight: bold; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span><span style="vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">no man with a crippled foot or hand,</span><span style="background-color: white; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span><span style="vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">or who is a hunchback or a dwarf, or who has any eye defect, or who has festering or running sores or damaged testicles.</span><span style="background-color: white; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span><span style="vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">No descendant of Aaron the priest who has any defect is to come near to present the food offerings to the Lord. He has a defect; he must not come near to offer the food of his God.</span><span style="font-weight: bold; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span><span style="vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">He may eat the most holy food of his God, as well as the holy food;</span><span style="font-weight: bold; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span><span style="vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">yet because of his defect, he must not go near the curtain or approach the altar, and so desecrate my sanctuary. I am the Lord, who makes them holy.</span></span></blockquote><span style="font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">One of the points that the editors of <i><a href="http://www.amazon.com/Lutheran-Study-Bible-English-Standard/dp/0758617607/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&amp;ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1423695548&amp;sr=1-1&amp;keywords=the+lutheran+study+bible">The Lutheran Study Bible</a> </i>make about these verses is that why "physical blemishes disqualified a priest from entering God's sanctuary or holy places...[the] disabled or misshapen were not regarded as profane, for the Lord allowed them to perform other tasks and eat holy food." </span><br /><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span><span style="vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Still, these qualifications, which come in a list of otherwise defensible ones dealing with things like sin and </span><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;">integrity, are jarring. It seems inconsistent with what we know about how God, as evidenced repeatedly in both the Old and New Testaments, loves all people. </span></span><br /><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;"><i><a href="http://www.amazon.com/IVP-Bible-Background-Commentary-Testament/dp/0830814191/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&amp;ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1423695586&amp;sr=1-1&amp;keywords=The+IVP+Bible+Background+Commentary%3A+Old+Testament">The IVP Bible Background Commentary: Old Testament</a> </i>does provide <i>some</i> explanation for these requirements, though they do little to eliminate our concerns:</span></span><br /><blockquote class="tr_bq"><span style="font-family: inherit; white-space: pre-wrap;">Just as animals with physical defects or blemishes [could] not be offered for sacrifice (22:19-22), priests who [had] a physical defect [could] not serve before the altar. Ritual purity [was] required for the sacred precincts of the altar, the sacrifice and the religious practitioner officiating at the altar in every religion in the ancient Near East. Priests [had to be] in perfect health and in full command of their bodies and senses.</span></blockquote><span style="font-family: inherit; white-space: pre-wrap;">So, the concern behind the requirements in Leviticus seem to have been not so much with creating a kind of super race of perfect physical specimens to serve as priests, but to ensure <i>ritual purity</i> in every way surrounding the sacrificial system.</span><br /><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;">Still this explanation is a guess at best and not very satisfying at that.</span></span><br /><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;">On further reflection, I feel that a few other things need to be considered before we leave this question so uncomfortably behind.</span></span><br /><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;">The first thing to remember is that some rules in Leviticus no longer apply. We've discussed this a number of times on this blog and in classes. In a nutshell, there are three kinds of Old Testament laws: (1) ritual/sacrificial law; (2) civil law; (3) moral law.&nbsp;</span></span><br /><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;">The first two types have been rendered instructive but irrelevant for us today.&nbsp;</span></span><br /><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;">The sacrificial system, along with priestly sacrifices, came to an end with Jesus' voluntary self-sacrifice on the cross. No further sacrifices are needed; we are saved by God's grace through faith in Christ alone.</span></span><br /><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;">The Old Testament priesthood ended at the moment Jesus Christ died on the cross. The New Testament book of Hebrews describes Jesus as our "great high priest." <u>Unlike the Old Testament priests, Jesus is both sacrifice and the One offering up the sacrifice, Himself</u>. </span></span><br /><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;">He is a high priest who understands our imperfections and, despite His sinlessness, allowed Himself to bear the burden of <i>our </i>imperfections and sinfulness on the cross. Hebrews 4:15 says of Jesus:</span></span><br /><blockquote class="tr_bq"><span id="docs-internal-guid-fa62a4a2-7ac3-ef50-d16e-0fa602144642"><span style="background-color: #fdfeff; color: #001320; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">For we do not have a high priest who is unable to empathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are--yet he did not sin.</span></span></blockquote><span style="background-color: #fdfeff; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="color: #001320;"><span style="font-family: inherit; white-space: pre-wrap;"><u>More than that, this is a great high priest who shared in the physical limitations, injuries, and defects to which every human being is subject</u>. You get the idea from reading the Old and New Testaments that Jesus was not an imposing physical specimen. Hundreds of years before His birth, the prophet Isaiah said of Jesus:</span></span></span><br /><blockquote class="tr_bq"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">He grew up before [God] like a tender shoot,</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;and like a root out of dry ground.</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">He had no beauty or majesty to attract us to him,</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;nothing in his appearance that we should desire him. </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">He was despised and rejected by mankind,</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;a man of suffering, and familiar with pain.</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Like one from whom people hide their faces</span><span id="docs-internal-guid-fa62a4a2-7ac6-8160-68b0-180d660d3f7b"><span style="vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;he was despised, and we held him in low esteem. (Isaiah 53:2-3)</span></span></span></blockquote><span style="font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">So, if the Old Testament Levitical priests were physical specimens, the great high priest Jesus, God in human flesh, was not.</span><br /><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span><span style="vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;">And maybe this gives us clues for the reason behind God instituting the physical qualifications for the priesthood we read about in Leviticus 21. Maybe ancient Israel, in the infancy of its historic mission to be God's "light to the nations" when these qualifications were given to His people in the wilderness, wasn't ready for priests who shared their weaknesses.&nbsp;</span></span></span><br /><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></span><span style="vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;">Maybe only God Himself possessed the requisite empathy and compassion to be such a high priest.&nbsp;</span></span></span><br /><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></span><span style="vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;">And maybe it was only after God Himself died at the hand of human weakness (and sin), then rose from the dead, that He was able to create a whole people--His Church--to share their weakness and God's strength with the world, and to confess their own weakness to God and be strengthened by His strong grace.</span></span></span><br /><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></span><span style="vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;">Lots of maybes. But, it's clear that no matter how troubling Leviticus 21 may be for us, it's not the final chapter in God's plan for the human race.</span></span></span><br /><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span><script async="" src="//pagead2.googlesyndication.com/pagead/js/adsbygoogle.js"></script><!-- John --><br /><span style="font-family: inherit;"><ins class="adsbygoogle" data-ad-client="ca-pub-5592130790838892" data-ad-slot="5335465718" style="display: inline-block; height: 280px; width: 336px;"></ins></span><script>(adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({}); </script>Mark Danielshttps://plus.google.com/107102845165909742951noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3543355.post-65479033062909445152015-02-11T00:31:00.000-05:002015-02-14T00:41:26.721-05:00The Sadness of Brian Williams' FallBrian Williams' fall from grace and his six-month suspension--likely to become permanent--as anchor for the <i>NBC Nightly News,</i> saddens me.<br /><br />While I haven't seen more than brief clips of his evening news broadcast for years, I always respected his reporting.<br /><br />It isn't his reporting that has gotten him into trouble though. It's his celebrity that's done it. Or more accurately, his reaction to it. Williams' "misremembering" and exaggerations weren't told on his news broadcasts. They were parts of tales he recounted on late night talk shows and in other such entertainment venues.<br /><br />There's good reason for anchors of network news shows to make appearances on talk shows. It's good for the ratings. It makes the individual who is the face of the evening broadcast accessible and, "real" to the public. <br /><br />But when you get onto the celebrity circuit, you're given a platform on which you can make a fool of yourself without anyone suggesting that you stop. (At least for awhile.)<br /><br />And, it seems, celebrity is like a drug. The applause, the adulation, and the laughs can, if one isn't careful, leave a person craving for more. So, the stories become more outrageous. Or the behavior does. You get too comfortable in the spotlight. As U2 puts it: "<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cp-lOfGuO1U">Some things you shouldn't get too good at/Like smiling, crying, and celebrity</a>."<br /><br />Celebrity can be deadly when it comes to someone at a young age. Elvis and Michael Jackson were addicted to it with horrible results throughout their lives. Celebrity can kill people. Or make them insufferable. Or unemployable. Or presumptuous. <br /><br /><a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2015/02/11/business/media/brian-williams-suspended-by-nbc-news-for-six-months.html?smid=tw-nytimes">According to <i>The New York Times</i></a>, Williams approached NBC executives about taking over <i>The Tonight Show </i>from Jay Leno. That probably should have set off alarm bells at 30 Rockefeller Center. But when "the talent" does or says something goofy, you do what you can to protect the cash cow by gently rebuffing them and sending them on their way, as NBC execs apparently did.<br /><br />That works until the celebrity goes one goofy too far. That's what has happened to Brian Williams.<br /><br />It's sad. Williams has been, from all appearances, a good journalist for years. And while in this hypermediated age in which people get their news constantly from the Internet, the nightly news broadcasts aren't as important as they were in the age of Cronkite and Huntley &amp; Brinkley, Brian Williams was deemed credible and watchable by more viewers than his competitors. He was seen as the best at what he did. But it wasn't enough for him, apparently.<br /><br />Once a person tastes celebrity, it seems, it rarely is. <br /><br /><span style="font-size: x-small;">[This has been <a href="http://themoderatevoice.com/202674/sadness-brian-williams-fall/">cross-posted at <i>The Moderate Voice</i></a>]</span><br /><br /><br /><script async="" src="//pagead2.googlesyndication.com/pagead/js/adsbygoogle.js"></script><!-- John --><br /><ins class="adsbygoogle" data-ad-client="ca-pub-5592130790838892" data-ad-slot="5335465718" style="display: inline-block; height: 280px; width: 336px;"></ins><script>(adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({}); </script>Mark Danielshttps://plus.google.com/107102845165909742951noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3543355.post-48254312900623335862015-02-10T09:05:00.000-05:002015-02-10T09:05:04.771-05:00Prayers......for X appreciated today. That's all. Just pray for X. Especially around noon Eastern time. Thank you.Mark Danielshttps://plus.google.com/107102845165909742951noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3543355.post-58002373702533215302015-02-09T21:26:00.000-05:002015-02-09T21:31:27.489-05:00Maybe the Most Un-Hip Song You'll Hear Today<i>London Town</i>&nbsp;is probably one of Paul McCartney's worst solo LPs. (OK, he recorded it with Wings. But let's face it, all the Wings releases were really McCartney solo projects.)<br /><br />Yet, as a friend of mine once said of Macca, "Even when he's bad, he's good." By that he meant that even when the tunes are sappy and the lyrics absurd schlock, which has happened more than a few times through the years, McCartney's sense of melody and penchant for compelling arrangements can pull you in.<br /><br /><i>I'm Carrying </i>is a flimsy tune from <i>London Town</i>. But confession of a guilty pleasure: I love it.<br /><br />What man in his right mind wouldn't want to compose something like this for his woman? And my guess is that most women wouldn't mind being on the receiving end of this schmaltzy Valentine.<br /><br />So, suspend your cynicism for two-minutes-and-fifty-five seconds and picture yourself as either the male or female lead in a real-life romantic comedy. The couple, for whatever reason, haven't seen one another for a time. The guy, heart on his sleeve, carnation on his lapel, and gift packages in his hand shows up...hoping, hoping, hoping. The girl opens her door. Their hearts beat quickly when they see each other and, for a moment, neither says anything. Then these words tumble from his mouth...<br /><br /><iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/HkrIg1d_s58" width="420"></iframe>Mark Danielshttps://plus.google.com/107102845165909742951noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3543355.post-79516301435407636742015-02-09T01:35:00.000-05:002015-02-09T01:35:35.041-05:00Favorite Line from "Four Five Seconds": The Power of WeaknessHaving heard the McCartney/Rihanna/Kanye collaboration, <i>Four Five Seconds</i>&nbsp;about four, five times, I'm not that into it. But, for me, one line from the song is a keeper:<br /><blockquote class="tr_bq">...all my kindness is taken for weakness</blockquote>Mistaking kindness for weakness in others is one of the biggest things we human beings make about others, I think.<br /><br />But kindness is a way love and true strength are enacted.<br /><br />If there's anything I learn from Jesus and the Bible, it's that love is expressed in actions, even toward those we find exasperating...or hateful.<br /><br />In Jesus Christ, God has done the ultimate kindness for the human race. He bore our sin on the cross in order to take the punishment, death, we deserve.<br /><br />Then He rose from the dead to take back from Satan and the evil of this already dying world the everlasting life that God intended for all of us.<br /><br />And then, through no merit of our own, He offered the victory over sin and death He had won, along with eternal life with God, as free gifts to all who renounce sin and trust Him to destroy the sin in us.<br /><br />The world mistook Jesus' kindness--His willing submission to death on a cross in spite of His power to evade it and to destroy those who took His life--for weakness. It still does.<br /><br />But Jesus expressed the very strength of God in His seeming weakness.<br /><br /><span style="font-family: inherit;">The same is true for all who bear the Name of Christ, God in the flesh.&nbsp;</span><br /><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: inherit;">God answered the apostle Paul's prayers for deliverance from a persistent "thorn in his flesh" by saying that He would not say, "Yes" to that prayer because, "...<span style="background-color: #fdfeff; color: #001320; line-height: 20px; text-align: justify;">my power is made perfect in weakness" (2 Corinthians 12:9). <u>God's power is manifest in those willing to have their emptiness and weakness filled by the One Who made the universe with His strength and His goodness</u>.</span></span><br /><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="background-color: #fdfeff; color: #001320; line-height: 20px; text-align: justify;"><br /></span></span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="background-color: #fdfeff; color: #001320; line-height: 20px; text-align: justify;">God's power too, is seen in the willingness of Jesus followers to serve others in precisely the way Jesus has served us on the cross and from the empty tomb.&nbsp;</span></span><br /><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="background-color: #fdfeff; color: #001320; line-height: 20px; text-align: justify;"><br /></span></span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="background-color: #fdfeff; color: #001320; line-height: 20px; text-align: justify;">In what was <a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Mark+1%3A29-39&amp;version=NIV">the Gospel lesson in many churches across North America yesterday</a>, we were told that Jesus healed the mother-in-law of His disciple, Simon Peter. Immediately afterward, Mark says of the woman that "she served them," meaning Jesus, Simon Peter, Andrew, James, and John.&nbsp;</span></span><br /><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="background-color: #fdfeff; color: #001320; line-height: 20px; text-align: justify;"><br /></span></span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="background-color: #fdfeff; color: #001320; line-height: 20px; text-align: justify;">Some read this or hear this and are horrified. A woman gets healed and the first thing she has to do is serve others. Humiliating, right?&nbsp;</span></span><br /><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="background-color: #fdfeff; color: #001320; line-height: 20px; text-align: justify;"><br /></span></span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="background-color: #fdfeff; color: #001320; line-height: 20px; text-align: justify;">But people who react in this way mistake kindness for weakness.&nbsp;</span></span><br /><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="background-color: #fdfeff; color: #001320; line-height: 20px; text-align: justify;"><br /></span></span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="background-color: #fdfeff; color: #001320; line-height: 20px; text-align: justify;">Simon Peter's mother-in-law "got it" before her son-in-law did. <u>She understood that when the God of the universe serves you and loves you, the only reasonable and appropriate response is to be a servant</u>.&nbsp;</span></span><br /><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="background-color: #fdfeff; color: #001320; line-height: 20px; text-align: justify;"><br /></span></span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="background-color: #fdfeff; color: #001320; line-height: 20px; text-align: justify;">She understood what James and John still had not gotten nine chapters later in Mark's gospel. The two were certain that Jesus was going to be a worldly triumph--Grammys, Oscars, Nobel Peace Prizes, landslide election victories, vast wealth, and military conquest in hand--and could make them His president and prime minister. "Grant," they asked Jesus, "that when you come into your glory, we'll sit on either side of you."&nbsp;</span></span><br /><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="background-color: #fdfeff; color: #001320; line-height: 20px; text-align: justify;"><br /></span></span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="background-color: #fdfeff; color: #001320; line-height: 20px; text-align: justify;">Jesus disappointed them with His answer, no doubt. At least until after His death and resurrection, when they finally began to "get it." Jesus said:"...whoever wants to become great among you must be your servant,<span class="crossreference" data-cr="#cen-NIV-24632A" data-link="(&lt;a href=&quot;#cen-NIV-24632A&quot; title=&quot;See cross-reference A&quot;&gt;A&lt;/a&gt;)" style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 22px; position: relative; top: 0px; vertical-align: top;"></span></span><span style="background-color: white; line-height: 24px;">&nbsp;</span><span class="text Mark-10-44" id="en-NIV-24633" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 24px;">and whoever wants to be first must be slave of all.</span><span style="background-color: white; line-height: 24px;">&nbsp;</span><span class="text Mark-10-45" id="en-NIV-24634" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 24px;">For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve,<span class="crossreference" data-cr="#cen-NIV-24634B" data-link="(&lt;a href=&quot;#cen-NIV-24634B&quot; title=&quot;See cross-reference B&quot;&gt;B&lt;/a&gt;)" style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 22px; position: relative; top: 0px; vertical-align: top;"></span>&nbsp;and to give his life as a ransom for many.” (Mark 10:44-45)</span></span><br /><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span class="text Mark-10-45" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 24px;"><br /></span></span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span class="text Mark-10-45" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 24px;">Those who are truly great understand that in the kingdom of God which Jesus has brought into our world the last will be first and the first will be last. Status means nothing to them. As Grammy Award winner and Christian rapper Lecrae noted on his Facebook page on Saturday, as he found himself surrounded by musical superstars, <span style="font-family: inherit;">"</span></span></span><span style="background-color: white; color: #141823; line-height: 19px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">There is no one I can meet in the world to make me any more valuable than God has already made me."&nbsp;</span></span><br /><span style="background-color: white; color: #141823; line-height: 19px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></span><span style="color: #141823;"><span style="background-color: white; line-height: 19px;"><u>When you know that, in Christ, you have the approval of God, you can afford to look weak to the world</u>. You can dare to be kind knowing that however much others may abuse you for it, God is with you and you can never be separated from Christ. Kindness rooted in the certainty that you belong to Christ always is an act of boldness and courage. <u>The kind are subversives in a conspiracy with Christ to overthrow the kingdoms of this world and boldly proclaim that, "There is no king but the God we meet in Jesus and wouldn't you like to be part of His kingdom?"</u></span></span><br /><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span class="text Mark-10-45" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 24px;"><br /></span></span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span class="text Mark-10-45" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 24px;">Never confuse kindness for weakness...especially in Christ or in those who strive to live faithfully for Him.</span></span><br /><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span class="text Mark-10-45" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 24px;"><br /></span></span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span class="text Mark-10-45" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 24px;"><br /></span></span><br /><br /><iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/kt0g4dWxEBo" width="560"></iframe><br /><br /><script async="" src="//pagead2.googlesyndication.com/pagead/js/adsbygoogle.js"></script><!-- John --><br /><ins class="adsbygoogle" data-ad-client="ca-pub-5592130790838892" data-ad-slot="5335465718" style="display: inline-block; height: 280px; width: 336px;"></ins><script>(adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({}); </script>Mark Danielshttps://plus.google.com/107102845165909742951noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3543355.post-39578689995970434932015-02-08T17:56:00.000-05:002015-02-12T00:30:44.550-05:00Does Jesus Heal?<span style="font-size: x-small;">[This was shared during this morning's worship services with the people and guests of <a href="http://livingwaterlutheran.us/">Living Water Lutheran Church in Springboro, Ohio</a>.]</span><br /><br /><b><a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Mark+1%3A29-39&amp;version=NIV">Mark 1:29-39</a></b><br /><div class="c4" style="background-color: white; direction: ltr; line-height: 1; orphans: 2; widows: 2;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span class="c1" style="color: #333333; font-size: small;">Some people may hear the Gospel lesson for this morning and say, “That’s nice. Jesus healed Simon Peter’s mother-in-law and others. Why doesn’t He heal people today?”</span></span></div><div class="c2" style="background-color: white; direction: ltr; height: 11pt; line-height: 1; orphans: 2; widows: 2;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"></span></div><div class="c4" style="background-color: white; direction: ltr; line-height: 1; orphans: 2; widows: 2;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span class="c1" style="color: #333333; font-size: small;">The answer, of course, is that He does.</span></span><br /><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span class="c1" style="color: #333333; font-size: small;"><br /></span></span></div><div class="c2" style="background-color: white; direction: ltr; height: 11pt; line-height: 1; orphans: 2; widows: 2;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"></span></div><div class="c4" style="background-color: white; direction: ltr; line-height: 1; orphans: 2; widows: 2;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span class="c1" style="color: #333333;">In an October 25, 1999 article of&nbsp;</span><span class="c0" style="color: #333333; font-style: italic;">The Archives of Internal Medicine,&nbsp;</span><span class="c1" style="color: #333333;">&nbsp;seven physicians, a hospital chaplain, a social worker, and a scholar associated with leading hospitals from around the country, presented the findings of their research on the connection between intercessory prayer—prayer offered on behalf of others--and the recovery of coronary patients. The researchers set up what’s known as a “double blind” experiment on those recovering from heart problems. There were 990 patients in the study. Prayers were said for some of them. Prayers were not offered for the others. The doctors treating the patients didn’t know who was chosen to be prayed for and the subjects of the prayers didn’t know either. But a list of first names was given to people in local churches who prayed for those on the list each day. Neither the people doing the praying, nor the people being prayed for, nor the researchers knew who had been chosen to be the target of prayer.&nbsp;</span></span></span></div><div class="c4" style="background-color: white; direction: ltr; line-height: 1; orphans: 2; widows: 2;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span class="c1" style="color: #333333;"><br /></span></span></span></div><div class="c4" style="background-color: white; direction: ltr; line-height: 1; orphans: 2; widows: 2;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span class="c1" style="color: #333333;">And what happened? Those for whom prayers were said recovered more quickly. As the researchers put it in the conclusion of their abstract (I love this), “This result suggests that prayer may be an effective adjunct to standard medical care.” (1)</span></span></span></div><div class="c2" style="background-color: white; direction: ltr; height: 11pt; line-height: 1; orphans: 2; widows: 2;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"></span></div><div class="c4" style="background-color: white; direction: ltr; line-height: 1; orphans: 2; widows: 2;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span class="c1" style="color: #333333; font-size: small;"><br /></span></span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span class="c1" style="color: #333333; font-size: small;">Now, if this were an isolated study, it wouldn’t mean much. But in recent decades, literally hundreds of objective scientific studies, conducted at major hospitals and universities, have been done looking into the connection between things like faith, prayer, and worship attendance on the one hand and healing and health on the other. The results are stunning.</span></span></div><div class="c2" style="background-color: white; direction: ltr; height: 11pt; line-height: 1; orphans: 2; widows: 2;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"></span></div><div class="c4" style="background-color: white; direction: ltr; line-height: 1; orphans: 2; widows: 2;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span class="c1" style="color: #333333; font-size: small;"><br /></span></span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span class="c1" style="color: #333333; font-size: small;">A few examples: A 1972 study of 91,909 people in Washington County, Maryland “found that those who attended church once or more a week had significantly lower death rates from…coronary-artery disease (50 percent reduction), emphysema (56 percent reduction), cirrhosis of the liver (74 percent reduction), suicide (53 percent reduction).” (2)</span></span></div><div class="c2" style="background-color: white; direction: ltr; height: 11pt; line-height: 1; orphans: 2; widows: 2;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"></span></div><div class="c4" style="background-color: white; direction: ltr; line-height: 1; orphans: 2; widows: 2;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span class="c1" style="color: #333333; font-size: small;"><br /></span></span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span class="c1" style="color: #333333; font-size: small;">“A 1978 study of 355 men in Evans County, Georgia showed that those who attended church one or more times per week had significantly lower blood-pressure readings than individuals who attended church less often. The positive link between church attendance and lower blood pressure held up even if the church attenders were smokers!” (2)</span></span></div><div class="c2" style="background-color: white; direction: ltr; height: 11pt; line-height: 1; orphans: 2; widows: 2;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"></span></div><div class="c4" style="background-color: white; direction: ltr; line-height: 1; orphans: 2; widows: 2;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span class="c1" style="color: #333333; font-size: small;"><br /></span></span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span class="c1" style="color: #333333; font-size: small;">Now, I know that I’m preaching to the choir here. Many of you in this sanctuary this morning would affirm that the God we know in Jesus Christ is still in the healing business. Certainly, God uses doctors, nurses, and other health care professionals to bring His healing. But, as study after study has confirmed, their efforts are enhanced by prayer.&nbsp;</span></span></div><div class="c4" style="background-color: white; direction: ltr; line-height: 1; orphans: 2; widows: 2;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span class="c1" style="color: #333333; font-size: small;"><br /></span></span></div><div class="c4" style="background-color: white; direction: ltr; line-height: 1; orphans: 2; widows: 2;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span class="c1" style="color: #333333; font-size: small;">In my years as a pastor, I’ve learned that many health care professionals know this. One surgeon I met years ago made a point of asking when I would be joining the patient he was operating on for prayer before surgery. “I want to be there when you pray,” he told me. “And would you please pray for me, too?” I was happy to do that.&nbsp;</span></span></div><div class="c4" style="background-color: white; direction: ltr; line-height: 1; orphans: 2; widows: 2;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span class="c1" style="color: #333333; font-size: small;"><br /></span></span></div><div class="c4" style="background-color: white; direction: ltr; line-height: 1; orphans: 2; widows: 2;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span class="c1" style="color: #333333; font-size: small;">That has happened several times before surgeries for members of Living Water in just the past year or so. One morning, the family and I were asked by both the surgeon and the anesthetist if we would pray with them.</span></span></div><div class="c2" style="background-color: white; direction: ltr; height: 11pt; line-height: 1; orphans: 2; widows: 2;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"></span></div><div class="c4" style="background-color: white; direction: ltr; line-height: 1; orphans: 2; widows: 2;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span class="c1" style="color: #333333;"><br /></span></span></span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span class="c1" style="color: #333333;">God is still in the healing business. In his book,&nbsp;</span><span class="c3" style="color: #333333; font-style: italic;">The Faith Factor</span><span class="c1" style="color: #333333;">, Dr. Dale A. Matthews tells the true story of Barbara, who suffered from cancer. Barbara was in worship one Sunday at the Anglican church she attended when the priest read <a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Mark+5%3A24-34&amp;version=NIV">the Gospel of Mark’s account of the woman who had been hemorrhaging for twelve years</a>. Not wanting to call attention to herself, Barbara believed that if <i>she</i> touched the hem of Jesus’ garment as He passed, she would be healed. As Barbara prepared to go to the altar to receive Holy Communion, a thought crossed her mind: “I could be like her.”</span></span></span></div><div class="c2" style="background-color: white; direction: ltr; height: 11pt; line-height: 1; orphans: 2; widows: 2;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"></span></div><div class="c4" style="background-color: white; direction: ltr; line-height: 1; orphans: 2; widows: 2;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span class="c1" style="color: #333333; font-size: small;"><br /></span></span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span class="c1" style="color: #333333; font-size: small;">She looked at her priest who was, she thought, “standing in” for Jesus as He presided over the Eucharist. “She decided that she would touch the priest’s robe when he gave her the communion wafer.” As Barbara tells it: “I touched his robe, and he couldn’t have known that I did, though he did know about my cancer. He did something in that moment that I had never seen him do before: he put down the paten with the communion wafers and came over to me; laying both hands on my head, he prayed for my healing.”</span></span></div><div class="c2" style="background-color: white; direction: ltr; height: 11pt; line-height: 1; orphans: 2; widows: 2;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"></span></div><div class="c4" style="background-color: white; direction: ltr; line-height: 1; orphans: 2; widows: 2;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span class="c1" style="color: #333333; font-size: small;"><br /></span></span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span class="c1" style="color: #333333; font-size: small;">Barbara wasn’t healed instantly. But she knew that God was healing her. As she explains it, though at that point her healing wasn’t physical, her heart was healed. “I had complete trust in God and his love, something [God] knew I needed far more than any other kind of healing at the moment.”</span></span></div><div class="c2" style="background-color: white; direction: ltr; height: 11pt; line-height: 1; orphans: 2; widows: 2;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"></span></div><div class="c4" style="background-color: white; direction: ltr; line-height: 1; orphans: 2; widows: 2;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span class="c1" style="color: #333333; font-size: small;"><br /></span></span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span class="c1" style="color: #333333; font-size: small;">Of course, you and I know that not every one for whom we pray is healed. And even more than that, <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Healing-nothing-happens-Easy---follow/dp/1466385405/ref=sr_1_6?s=books&amp;ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1423434807&amp;sr=1-6&amp;keywords=mark+dahle">Pastor Mark Dahle, a Lutheran pastor who has written and spoken about his California congregation’s healing ministry, reminds us</a>, everybody for whom we pray will eventually die. We live in a fallen and imperfect world. Death comes, as does suffering of all kinds. Faith in Jesus is no insurance policy against the reality of living in a dying world.</span></span></div><div class="c2" style="background-color: white; direction: ltr; height: 11pt; line-height: 1; orphans: 2; widows: 2;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"></span></div><div class="c4" style="background-color: white; direction: ltr; line-height: 1; orphans: 2; widows: 2;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span class="c1" style="color: #333333; font-size: small;"><br /></span></span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span class="c1" style="color: #333333; font-size: small;">So, why did Jesus heal Simon’s mother-in-law and the others our Gospel lesson tells us He healed? Why does Jesus heal today?</span></span></div><div class="c2" style="background-color: white; direction: ltr; height: 11pt; line-height: 1; orphans: 2; widows: 2;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"></span></div><div class="c4" style="background-color: white; direction: ltr; line-height: 1; orphans: 2; widows: 2;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span class="c1" style="color: #333333;"><br /></span></span></span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span class="c1" style="color: #333333;">We get at least&nbsp;</span><span class="c3 c6" style="color: #333333; font-style: italic; font-weight: bold;">one</span><span class="c1" style="color: #333333;">&nbsp;answer to that question from an interchange that happens between Simon and Jesus before dawn, the day after Jesus healed Simon’s mother-in-law and after Jesus has just spent time in prayer.</span></span></span></div><div class="c2" style="background-color: white; direction: ltr; height: 11pt; line-height: 1; orphans: 2; widows: 2;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"></span></div><div class="c4" style="background-color: white; direction: ltr; line-height: 1; orphans: 2; widows: 2;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span class="c1" style="color: #333333;"><br /></span></span></span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span class="c1" style="color: #333333;">It had been a busy Sabbath for Jesus. After worshiping and teaching in the synagogue at Capernaum—where, you’ll remember from last week’s Gospel lesson, He had cast out a demon--He’d gone to the house of Simon and Andrew for dinner, healed Simon’s mother-in-law, cured many who were sick, cast out demons, and then before sun-up, prayed.&nbsp;</span></span></span></div><div class="c4" style="background-color: white; direction: ltr; line-height: 1; orphans: 2; widows: 2;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span class="c1" style="color: #333333;"><br /></span></span></span></div><div class="c4" style="background-color: white; direction: ltr; line-height: 1; orphans: 2; widows: 2;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span class="c1" style="color: #333333;">While He was praying, Simon and the others hunted Jesus down. They clearly wanted Jesus to go back to the scene of so much triumph and success. Instead, Jesus tells them, “</span><span class="c1" style="color: #333333;">Let us go somewhere else—to the nearby villages—so I can preach there also. That is why I have come.</span><span class="c1" style="color: #333333;">”</span></span></span></div><div class="c2" style="background-color: white; direction: ltr; height: 11pt; line-height: 1; orphans: 2; widows: 2;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"></span></div><div class="c4" style="background-color: white; direction: ltr; line-height: 1; orphans: 2; widows: 2;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span class="c3 c6" style="color: #333333; font-style: italic; font-weight: bold;"><br /></span></span></span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span class="c3 c6" style="color: #333333; font-style: italic; font-weight: bold;">For Jesus, healing was never an end</span><span class="c1" style="color: #333333;">.&nbsp;</span><span class="c3 c6" style="color: #333333; font-style: italic; font-weight: bold;">It was only a means</span><span class="c1" style="color: #333333;">.</span></span></span></div><div class="c2" style="background-color: white; direction: ltr; height: 11pt; line-height: 1; orphans: 2; widows: 2;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"></span></div><div class="c4" style="background-color: white; direction: ltr; line-height: 1; orphans: 2; widows: 2;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span class="c1" style="color: #333333;"><br /></span></span></span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span class="c1" style="color: #333333;">John’s Gospel constantly refers to Jesus’ healings and other miracles as&nbsp;</span><span class="c3" style="color: #333333; font-style: italic;">signs</span><span class="c1" style="color: #333333;">. Signs point to something more significant, more meaningful than themselves. The miracles of Jesus point us to the simple, powerful fact that Jesus has power over life, death, suffering, disease, sin, the devil, our sinful selves, and every other one of our enemies.</span></span></span></div><div class="c2" style="background-color: white; direction: ltr; height: 11pt; line-height: 1; orphans: 2; widows: 2;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"></span></div><div class="c4" style="background-color: white; direction: ltr; line-height: 1; orphans: 2; widows: 2;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span class="c1" style="color: #333333; font-size: small;"><br /></span></span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span class="c1" style="color: #333333; font-size: small;">What Jesus came to do during His time on earth was share a plain message, one that will change our lives forever if we let it. In Mark 1:15, we find the only of sermons Jesus that Mark recounts: The time has come,”<span style="line-height: 24px;">&nbsp;he said.&nbsp;</span><span class="woj" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; background-color: transparent; box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 24px;">“The kingdom of God has come near. Repent and believe&nbsp;the good news!”</span></span></span><br /><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span class="c1" style="color: #333333; font-size: small;"><span class="woj" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; background-color: transparent; box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 24px;"><br /></span></span></span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span class="c1" style="color: #333333; font-size: small;"><span class="woj" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; background-color: transparent; box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 24px;">He says, in effect, “Turn from sin—repent—and trust in Me to give you life forever—fuller life today and totally new, restored life forever with God.”</span></span></span></div><div class="c2" style="background-color: white; direction: ltr; height: 11pt; line-height: 1; orphans: 2; widows: 2;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"></span></div><div class="c4" style="background-color: white; direction: ltr; line-height: 1; orphans: 2; widows: 2;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span class="c1" style="color: #333333; font-size: small;"><br /></span></span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span class="c1" style="color: #333333; font-size: small;">Repent. Trust. That’s Jesus’ message in a nutshell. Its validity is underscored by HIs miracles, by His suffering death on our behalf, and by His resurrection.</span></span></div><div class="c2" style="background-color: white; direction: ltr; height: 11pt; line-height: 1; orphans: 2; widows: 2;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"></span></div><div class="c4" style="background-color: white; direction: ltr; line-height: 1; orphans: 2; widows: 2;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span class="c1" style="color: #333333;"><br /></span></span></span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span class="c1" style="color: #333333;">Jesus once asked an important question. “</span><span class="c5 c7" style="background-color: #fdfeff; color: #001320;">What good will it be for someone to gain the whole world, yet forfeit their soul?”</span><span class="c1" style="color: #333333;">&nbsp;[Matthew 16:26] Today’s lesson, I think, asks a similar question: “What good is it to have perfect health, but not have life with God?”</span></span></span></div><div class="c2" style="background-color: white; direction: ltr; height: 11pt; line-height: 1; orphans: 2; widows: 2;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"></span></div><div class="c4" style="background-color: white; direction: ltr; line-height: 1; orphans: 2; widows: 2;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span class="c1" style="color: #333333; font-size: small;"><br /></span></span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span class="c1" style="color: #333333; font-size: small;">Jesus Christ heals. And, by the power of His death and resurrection, the ultimate healing, the one that matters for all eternity, is the healing of our broken relationships with God, with others, and with ourselves. The healing Christ brings to those who repent and believe in Him will be our joy for all eternity. It can also be our comfort, our strength, and our hope even now. Amen</span></span><br /><span class="c1" style="color: #333333;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></span><span class="c1" style="color: #333333; font-family: inherit; font-size: x-small;"><span style="color: black;">(1) I had heard of this research before. But I'm grateful to the late&nbsp;</span><a href="http://www.agreeley.com/hom09/feb08.htm">Father Andrew Greeley for pointing to it</a><span style="color: black;">.</span><br style="color: black;" /><br style="color: black;" /><span style="color: black;">(2) These are cited in a book by Dr. Dale A. Matthews,&nbsp;</span><a href="http://www.amazon.com/Faith-Factor-Proof-Healing-Prayer/dp/0140275754/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&amp;s=books&amp;qid=1234094498&amp;sr=8-1">here</a><span style="color: black;">. Dr. Larry Dossey also has spent years&nbsp;</span><a href="http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_ss_b_0_8?url=search-alias%3Dstripbooks&amp;field-keywords=larry+dossey&amp;sprefix=Larry+Do">cataloging scientific studies specifically showing the connection between prayer and healing</a><span style="color: black;">. Both Matthews and Dossey are physicians.</span></span></div>Mark Danielshttps://plus.google.com/107102845165909742951noreply@blogger.com0